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Who wants to be a millionaire?

Aine Sills
St. Mary’s SS, Tralee, Kerry

What's more gripping than a horror film, more exciting than a sports final, more addictive than chocolate and more involving than any other gameshow? The answer - "Who wants to be a Millionaire?"!!

The hit gameshow has made over 100 deals with foreign countries and has 'cracked' the US market. It has a simple, yet ingenious format. Each country is required by contract to have identical studios, music, fifteen questions to get to £1 million and two guarantee points (£1,000 and £32,000). The show’s success is strengthened by the fact that the questions vary and are therefore accessible to anyone.

On the 17th of October the show hit Ireland. We've all seen the posters, ads and articles concerning it but will the show actually merit the amount of hype that has surrounded it?

A key element to the show’s world-wide success has been its scheduling. In the ITV version the show appears at roughly the same time for 12 consecutive days and then vanishes again. This creates a shroud of mystery around the programme, making it a Christmas-like event in the sense that it only happens once in a while. As a result it never fails to draw an audience. On the other hand, the RTE version amounts to a mere fifty minutes a week and even then, there is a break halfway through for 'Fair City'. Gay Byrne does his professional best but leaves a lot to be desired as we've all had a taste of Chris Tarrant's tactics who has perfected the art of getting people to scream "WILL YOU GET ON WITH IT!!". If a gameshow of this scale is going to be done then it should be done right.

It can't be denied that this is the format of the moment but whether the Irish version of "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" will mirror the gameshow's success overseas is now up to the audience.

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