Mother of Crorepati celebrates a year of couch potato coup

Question for $100: When did the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? first air in the United States? Question for $200: How many contestants have won the million-dollar prize? Question for $300: How much total prize money has been distributed on the show so far? Question for $500: In which country did the show originate? If you can ace these first four, you may belong to the vast number of quiz junkies across the world who are now hooked on to what is arguably the most watched TV show in history, seen in its Indian avatar as Kaun Banega Crorepati.

For the record, the answer is (a) August 16, 1999 (b) four contestants in U.S have gone the full distance and won a million bucks, and (c) Totalprize money distributed to date is $ 28,836,000 (d) Great Britain.

On the first American anniversary of one of the most addictive TV shows to have swept the world, the news is that it has completely changed the dynamics of television programming and ratings in the United States.

Butpeople are beginning to ease off. After an initial craze that saw viewership climb to a record 33 million in the US, the awkwardly acronym-ed WWTBAM is attracting a more modest 20 million audience.

That is still enough to kill every other programme in its path. Besides, even as interest in the US and Great Britain wanes just a trifle, the fever is catching on elsewhere in the world. While the show is a runaway hit in India, Canada next month joins the bandwagon that already has Germany, Spain, Russia, and Argentina among others. As of this month, the show is a runaway hit in 29 countries, with another 50 countries snapping it up for rebroadcast. Television executives are calling it one of the all-time great money-spinners in the history of the medium.

Millionaire was actually born in England, where it was turned down for two years by the ITV network before it went on the air there in late 1998. It was an instant hit. But it was the expansion to the United States — and the typical American razzmatazz that accompanied it — that has made it England’s most successful cultural export in the past 30 years.

“It’s a bit like the old days of the British empire,” Paul Smith, managing director of the British production company Celador, which came up with the game show, said in one interview. “We’ve got a map of the world in the office coloured in pink where we’ve placed the show. Most of the world is pink.” Another executive said it was Britain’s greatest export since The Beatles.

Millionaire began on a two-week trial run in the US, but it was such a runaway hit that it has now become a four-days-a-week feature. The quiz host, a wooden TV personality named Regis Philbin whose career was thought to be in decline, has been resurrected and he now earns a record annual salary of $ 20 million — more than any of the network anchors.

But the show has not been a uniform hit everywhere. The surprise exception is Japan, which quickly takes up any American craze — from roller blades to baggy jeans. US TV programming has long been a Japanese staple but the local clone Quiz $ Millionaire has earned poor ratings. One explanation for that is the relatively low prize money. Japanese anti-trust laws allow only a $10 million yen jackpot (about $108,000) and TV executives say it is hard to recreate the same level as excitement with less money.

The Indian show, which offers about $ 2,20,000, to anyone acing all 15 questions, doesn’t seem to face the same problem though. The US shows $1 million is currently equal to about Rs 4.6 crore

The Japanese are also more conservative with most contestants opting out with modest prize money. It took more than three months for somebody to finally win 10 million yen. Middle school teacher Yasuyuki Kunimitsu, 26, became the first contestant to anwer all 15 questions correctly on an episode broadcast on July 27. In contrast, the American show, which some watchers feel is far easier than the original British quiz, has thrown up four millionaires. In three years, no British contestant has won the full prize.

But it is the business angle of Millionaire that is roiling the television world. By consistently drawing huge viewership, the show has single-handedly stopped or changed several industry trends. Most crucially, it has stemmed the erosion of broadcast TV against the relentless tide of cable.

Millionaire has also helped Disney child ABC, which was being walloped by the GE-backed NBC. “We’ve captured lightning in a bottle with this show, and we intend to take full advantage of it,” ABC Entertainment Television Group co-chairman Stu Bloomberg has said.

If ABC has captured lightning in a bottle, it is also mastering the ability to unleash it at will against the competition. Thanks to Millionaire, ABC is now toying with other networks — something which STAR in India might start doing soon. Without a major hit since the halcyon days of Home Improvement, and Roseanne, it is now deliberately positioning Millionaire against the best the competition has to offer and squishing them. A recent Millionaire episode with celebrity contestant Dana Carvey attracted more viewers than CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and WB got during the same hour combined.

Chidanand Rajghatt

Other Stories...

Asianet to be out of Zee Telugu venture too
Star’s Hindi business channel to target rural viewers too
Cable act amendment unlikely to increase DD visibility
Creative Eye to peg fresh initial float price at Rs 150
Aiaconstent.com to launch MTVIndia site by Ocotber
Videocon to make 5 lakh Internet TVs at its Aurangabad plan
Will serving snacks instead of meals stoke the appetite for channel V?
BPL’s Innovision’s Indigo FM, Music to hit airwaves by Oct
Dhadkan.com cedes 25 per cent equity to Nagpur-based investor
Cable operators demand entertainment tax rollbacka

TOP