Quiz ITV: How Who Wants to Be a Millionaire became a huge US hit

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Less than two weeks after the show’s premiere, The New York Times deemed it “the talk of the television world this summer,” adding: “It has surpassed the status of mere hit to emerge as a national phenomenon.” On Sunday 22 August 1999, Millionaire had drawn 15 million viewers, “its largest audience yet” and “more than for any other show on television in the last weekly rating period”. A September 1999 review by Entertainment Weekly pointed to the show’s aesthetics as an essential part of its appeal – rightly so – from the “shiny-steel-girdered, blinking-light set that makes it seem like you’re watching people trapped inside a pinball machine”, to its “adult-size high chairs and music that sounds like John Tesh on Quaaludes”. aired.” Beyond the show’s visual and musical identity, Millionaire’s core premise – answer 15 questions correctly and walk away with seven figures – has always held an undeniable, universal appeal. Online has attributed to ABC’s “over-reliance on the show”, causing “the luster to wear off pretty quickly” – Millionaire moved to syndication, with Meredith Vieira taking over hosting duties from 2002 to 2013.