Well, it had to happen at some stage, but perhaps even we didn't expect this go-for-the-throat show to be such a huge success. The previous unconvincing "let's raise the stakes" show, Raise the Roof, was still fairly fresh in the memory, and this new show might have been just the same but with an extra "0" on the end of the budget. Thankfully, not so.

THE SCHEDULE

Hthere were a few things that were intriguing before the programme was even broadcast which made things look distinctly promising. The major clue that something special was on its way was that ITV was clearing some cupboard space for this baby. The idea was that the programme would appear at roughly the same time every night for 12 consecutive days, bulldozing through whatever scheduled episode of Inspector Wexford or The Bill was supposed to appear there instead. Good grief, even the ITV golden goose of Coronation Street was once rescheduled because of it!
 
 

GAME SUMMMARY Ten contestants from around the UK take part in each programme. Qualification is through a telephone competition, full details of which are available on the ITV website. From the ten qualifiers, one contestant is chosen via a timed question. This contestant plays for the £1 million top prize. The contestant must answer 15 multiple-choice questions correctly to win the jackpot, although the contestant may quit at any time and keep their earnings. For each question, they are shown the question and four possible answers in advance. If they offer an answer, it must be correct to stay in the game. If at any stage they answer incorrectly, they fall back to the last "guarantee point" (marked in yellow on the right) and their game is over. For example, a contestant failing on question 13 would win £32,000. Answering incorrectly before reaching the first guarantee point (£1,000) loses everything. A new player is picked from the remaining pool of 10. If time runs out on a particular programme, the next programme continues that player's game. At any point, the contestant may use up one (or more) of their three "lifelines". These are:   50:50 option - two of the three incorrect answers are removed.  Phone a friend - the contestants may speak to a friend on the phone for 30 seconds to discuss the question.  Ask the audience - the audience votes with their keypads on their choice of answer.  Each lifeline may only be used once. Will anyone get to that Magic Million? Watch ITV soon and find out!		Correct Answers	Prize
		15	£1 million
		14	£500,000
		13	£250,000
		12	£125,000
		11	£64,000
		10	£32,000
		9	£16,000
		8	£8,000
		7	£4,000
		6	£2,000
		5	£1,000
		4	£500
		3	£300
		2	£200
		1	£100

THE HOST

Chris Tarrant (pictured) is one of those game show hosts whose job it is not just to get up your nose, but to tickle your nostrils and play with the nasal hairs while he's in there. He has perfected the art of getting people to scream "WILL YOU JUST DAMN WELL GET ON WITH IT!" at the radio through his years of running promotional games on Capital FM (his 9-to-5 job is a disc jockey – shouldn't that be 6-to-10 job?)

While Who Wants... was a very simple idea, it needed a good host to carry it off and Tarrant was that host. For example, if the producers had plumped for Richard Madeley, Les Dennis or even Brucie it's almost certain that the ITV audience wouldn't have been anywhere as captivated.

Tarrant's style was essentially his usual zany/wacky persona, but unusually in this game he showed that he could be professional and accurate when the need arose (e.g. when reading out the initial qualification question, where time of response was critical). Yes, he was annoying when he took about a minute before telling the contestant know that they had now won "...X THOUSAND POUNDS!!!", but that's the point – no-one else in the business could build up this suspense. He made you care.

SHOW DESIGN

Putting the easy-to-pick-up format and the host aside for one moment, it's clear that some T.L.C. went into the making of the show. In fact, the whole theme of the programme seemed to take
the essential classic elements of a quiz but present them using modern metaphors. For example, the synthesiser fanfare theme music was dramatic, but if you listened closely you could make
out more than a passing semblance of the actual famous "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" song – so famous, we can't remember what film it appears in. There was even some extremely nice Pet
Shop Boys-esque background music while the contestants pondered about the questions, with deep, gothic-sounding choirs intermixed with high-pitched electronic arpeggios.

The set was one of those "in the round" numbers. Perhaps not the most original idea in recent times, Wanted and Whittle beat them to it, but it's so nicely constructed (with its suspended glass floor with a huge dish-shape underneath covered in mirrors) you could tell Terrence Conran would approve. The lighting also deserves a passing mention, with the spotlights zooming down on the contestant after each major question answered. The graphics (see logo at top of screen) were smartly and wittily executed, mixing the traditional intricate bank note patterns with question marks and pound signs. Even the typeface used for the captions was Bank Gothic (geddit?)

HOW CAN THEY AFFORD TO DO THIS

Essentially, the money came from you (thanks very much!) In order to qualify to appear on the show, you had to ring a premium-rate telephone number and answer a multiple-choice question. If you were correct, you spoke your name and telephone number over the phone to a recorded message. Out of all the correct calls received, 100 were randomly chosen by the computer. These 100 people were called back and answered a second question which was a "see how close you can get" type. The ten who answered correctly and quickly were chosen to appear as the ten qualifiers you see at the start of each programme. The names of the chosen ten were only announced on the previous night's programme. Over the series around 5 million calls were made and, at about £1 per call, you can imagine some people, somewhere, were hearing comedy cash till noises going off in their heads. Here's how it worked out:

British Telecom takes its share of the £1 call, like it does for any premium rate line (approximately 40%).  Of the remaining cash, the people running the qualification line telephone answering service also take a cut. Around £380,000 was doled out in prizes for the first series. ITV got a few hundred thousand, because Celador paid them for the adverts for the premium rate line. Contrary to popular belief, the TV company itself (Celador) didn't directly make a profit from the calls. Any money left over (around £400,000) is being used towards funding the prize for the next series, and when the show eventually comes to an end any remainder will be given to charity.

WHATS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?

Scenes like nothing else in recent quiz show history took hold when WWTBAM? was broadcast. Towards the end of the series, it was bringing in 20+ million viewers. It even beat some editions of the perennial ITV ratings stalwart, Coronation Street. The show deserved these ratings though – it wasn't just any old quiz.

THE FUTURE

Big – no, HUGE – things are being planned for this format. ITV have recommissioned show for no less than EIGHT new series. Like the first series, the programme will bulldoze through the schedule, regardless of what other programmes were there previously, so that the show appears at the same time every day for 12 consecutive evenings. A new series will run every three months, with the first series starting early in 1999. In addition, there is a number of  one-hour special's planned. Not surprisingly, other countries are said to be very interested in the format. It has been described as the fastest selling Game show format ever,  ABC have planned an American Pilot for April 1999

And there's no need for Chris Tarrant to enter the competition himself – apparently, he'll be paid something like £2.5 million for just hosting the show.

The format was devised by David Briggs, who also devised many of the promotional games for Chris Tarrant's breakfast show on London radio station Capital FM.