History Series / WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire

TV GameShow, originating in the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom in 1998 and now sold to multiple countries. [[Creator/JasperCarrott Celador]], its former production company, claims that the format has been aired in 100 countries worldwide.

** In a 2001 episode of the same version, a contestant won £32,000, the highest "safe" amount on that version. Chris Tarrant handed him a cheque for that amount, as he often does in that situation -- which the contestant immediately crumpled up and tossed away, saying he intended to win a lot more. Said contestant promptly blew the next question, and Tarrant refused to write him another cheque, forcing the contestant to go looking on the studio floor for the original one.

** Most notably in the first episodes, the Fastest Finger First round consisted of answering a normal question rather than a 'put these in order' question. (This was changed when a contestant discovered a flaw with the machines used for the round: simultaneously pressing all four buttons at once would be accepted as a correct answer. The contestant in question later confessed what he'd done to a member of the production team and the round was changed to the 'put these in order' version as an ObviousRulePatch.)

** "'''50:50'''": Two wrong answers are eliminated; originally, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard this removed the two most obviously-wrong answers]], but later changed to removing two wrong answers at random... well, ''maybe'' random. Replaced by Double Dip in 2008 with the introduction of the Clock format but later reintroduced in 2015, replacing the remaining Jump the Question from the now-retired Shuffle format.

** Hosts were intended to open the briefcase when there was a top prize winner, but [[Word of God Chris Tarrant]] later mentioned that despite practicing numerous times it was difficult to prevent notes from flying around the studio and [[MoneyForNothing into the audiences' wallets]].

* MindScrewdriver: Cedric the Entertainer will joke around a lot before he tells contestants that they're right.

** The UK version also tends to hype up top prize winners in advance. Notably, the broadcast of the episode with the first millionaire was heavily publicised as such, so it could act as a spoiler for another big TV event on the opposite channel -- namely, the final ever episode of the enormously popular ''Series/OneFootInTheGrave''. Later millionaires had various tactics, such as trailers ''strongly implying'' the million was about to be given away again, whilst the first win of the revived series announced that it would happen without specifying which episode in the forthcoming run would feature it.

* IconicSequelTheme: The original theme tune for the pilot was really REALLY awful. So bad producers dropped it, and the one we all know and love was created in a week (and modified throughout the first series).

** The ''Canada Edition'' (shot in the same NYC studio as the American version) only had two episodes before being cancelled.
** The New Zealand edition lasted a single season in 2008.
** Similarly, the South Korea version also lasted only one season in 2013.

* ShortRunners: The ''Canada Edition'' (shot in the same NYC studio as the American version) only had two episodes before being cancelled.

** Occurs a few times, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FniuJmTNPdM in this $100,000 question.]] [[note]]For starters, krypton is not fictional, but she could have simply misspoken when she said neon "doesn't sound like a gas" (maybe she meant to say it didn't sound like the right answer?).[[/note]]
** The Brazilian version broadcast on Globo provided another example on November 10th, 2018. [[note]]A contestant was asked how many prime numbers there are between 1 and 20. The contestant gave the correct answer (8) but arrived at it by assuming number 1 counts as a prime number and number 2 doesn't.[[/note]]

** If you made it to the top tier of questions in ''Super Millionaire'' with your [=50:50=] still intact, you could use it in conjunction with the Double Dip to guarantee yourself a correct answer. Several contestants lampshaded this strategy, though none were able to use it, since they'd all used the [=50:50=] before the $500k question.
** The Russian version's contestants, however, use the [=50:50=] + Double Dip combo quite frequently.

** If you made it to the top tier of questions in ''Super Millionaire'' with your [=50:50=] still intact, you could use it in conjunction with the Double Dip to guarantee yourself a correct answer. Several contestants lampshaded this strategy, though none were able to use it, since they all used the [=50:50=] before the "new dimension" level.

** If you made it to the top tier of questions in ''Super Millionaire'' with your [=50:50=] still intact, you could use it in conjunction with the Double Dip to guarantee yourself a correct answer. Several contestants lampshaded this strategy, though none were able to use it.
** The Russian version's contestants, however, use [=50:50=] + Double Dip combo quite frequently.

** The 15th season of the Indian Hindi/English version introduces a proper one named "Super Sandook" (lit. Super Box), where the player has 90 seconds to answer up to 10 multiple-choice questions. Each question is worth a 10,000-rupee bonus, and if the player has at least 60,000 rupees at the end, they have the chance to trade the bonus money for a lifeline they have already used. This game is played after clearing question ten (320,000 rupees).

** The German version did change from [=DM1M=] to €1M and even [[{{Pun}} capitalised]] on this with the slogan "The million is now worth twice as much" (the rate was [=DM1=].95 = €1).

* {{Lifelines}}:

** The 15th season of the Indian Hindi/English version introduces a proper one named "Super Sandook" (lit. Super Box), where the player has 90 seconds to answer up to 10 multiple-choice questions. Each question is worth a 10,000-rupee bonus, and if the player has at least 60,000 rupees at the end, they have the chance to trade the bonus money for a lifeline they have already used. This game is played after clearing the tenth question (320,000 rupees).

** The 15th season of the Indian Hindi/English version introduces a proper one named "Super Sandook" (lit. Super Box), where the player has 90 seconds to answer up to 10 multiple-choice questions. Each question is worth a 10,000-rupee bonus, and if the player has at least 60,000 rupees at the end, they have the chance to trade the bonus money for a lifeline they have already used. This game is played after the player clears the tenth question (320,000 rupees).

** The 15th season of the Indian Hindi/English version introduces a proper one named "Super Sandook" (lit. Super Box), where the player has 90 seconds to answer up to 10 multiple-choice questions. Each question is worth a 10,000-rupee bonus, and if the player has at least 60,000 rupees at the end, they have the chance to trade the bonus money for a lifeline they have already used.

** The 15th season of ''Kaun Banega Crorepati'' introduced "Desk Ka Sawal", a feature allowing viewers to select questions for the players.

* AllGaysLoveTheater: In the Celebrity Millionaire episode with Norm [=MacDonald=], the $500,000 question was about a play Samuel Beckett wrote. After seeing the choices, Norm said:
--> '''Norm''': Well, I'm not gay, so I don't know that much about Broadway musicals... ''(audience laughs)''

* {{Corpsing}}: For some reason, Regis had the giggles when Dan Jolly was a contestant.

* TemptingFate: In a 2001 episode of the UK version, a contestant won £32,000, the highest "safe" amount on that version. Chris Tarrant handed him a cheque for that amount, as he often does in that situation -- which the contestant immediately crumpled up and tossed away, saying he intended to win a lot more. Said contestant promptly blew the next question, and Tarrant refused to write him another cheque, forcing the contestant to go looking on the studio floor for the original one.