My essay will mainly focus on “Who wants to be a millionaire”. The show started in the 1990’s with its entertaining host Chris Tarrant. The unique selling point of the show is its 1 million pound jackpot. The show also does celebrity editions as proof of its success and millionaire winners showing it can be done. The first ever show was broadcast on the 4th of September 1998 on ITV1. Now in its 15th series there have been 344 shows and 748 contestants in the hotseat with total winnings of nearly £40 million pounds.
The first round of “who wants to be a millionaire” is called “fastest finger first” this is a fast round to pick a contestant for the main game. “Fastest finger first” is a use of alliteration to emphasise the speed required. The objective of the game is to answer all fifteen questions and win the top prize of a million pounds. The first five questions are relatively easy. This is to show that anyone can do it and it makes people feel superior and confident. Once you have answered the five questions you have definitely reached £1000. After this the risk of losing all your earned money becomes an issue, as the next five questions go up to £32,000. This adds to the excitement and tension of the show. The questions get progressively harder as the game goes on.
There are also three lifelines that help you on your way to earning one million pounds there’s: “ask the audience” which entrusts the money you’ve earned to complete strangers hoping they help and give you a correct answer. “50-50” is an option this eliminates two of the answers therefore this gives an increasing temptation to guess and therefore increasing the tension. The last lifeline is “Phone a friend” this testing the relationship between the contestant and the person on the phone, this also increases the tension with the amount of time given, the ticking of the clock and the relative or friend being told how much money is at stake adds pressure as the friend or relative cannot think properly with such high tension.
The layout of the studio is similar to the infamous “mastermind” game show. The stools that Chris Tarrant and the contestant sit on are almost identical to that of master mind. The stage is circular with the audience surrounding it similar to the layout of the coliseum from roman times. This gives it a “gladiatorial” feel.
A friend or family member is seated behind the contestant so that he/she feels intimidated by having a “loved one” watching them and maybe scrutinising them, which makes the contestant feel less confident and therefore maybe putting more unnecessary pressure upon them.
Music also adds a lot of tension. The recognisable theme tune is a symbol of the show. It tries to reflect what type of programme it is. The theme tune is tense, dramatic and slightly dangerous it also gives the impression of stumbling and falling. The volume of the music rises as the tension increases like when Chris Tarrant is going to tell the contestant that their answer is wrong or right. During “fastest finger first” and “phone a friend” there is a clock ticking this creates tension because it emphasises the importance of what you are doing such as helping the contestant to reach his/her goal. The clock ticking also puts pressure on the person and makes them feel like they have a lot less time than they actually do.
From the £1000 mark upwards there is the constant sound of a heartbeat which may seem simple enough however to the contestant it unknowingly increases the pressure upon them as it makes them more nervous than they would be without the heartbeat.
The show always seems to end before the end one of the answers is revealed. Normally the contestant and audience give a sigh because the tension is going to be carried over to the next show. The tension has ended for the current show which releases all the previous tension that the show builds up for them.
The camera shots also add tension to the show. When the contestant is nervous the cameraman tends to use a close up shot, so the contestants are put under more pressure. Also when Christ Tarrant shows the contestant a cheque for the amount of money they have won, there is also a close up to show the audience and viewers the amount of money won and to emphasize how much they could lose. Before the contestant and Chris Tarrant take “the seat” there is a medium shot of the stage. This is to show how the stage is like the coliseum, this gives a gladiatorial feel.
When or if the contestant uses “ask the audience” there is a wide angled shot to show the entire scene, and make clear that it is the audience who is answering the question.
At random intervals during the show there are low angle shots so we see the nervous relatives face, this again adds tension. Editing is used to shorten the show into the format we at home see and is used to manipulate the viewers into thinking that the show is live.
When a contestant is answering a more difficult question a lot more time is spent on it to create a tenser atmosphere. For the audience and viewers at home it also adds tension for them as they sympathise with the contestant understanding the pressure he/she must be under.
Lighting is used as a major feature throughout the show. The “tunnel” changes the colour throughout the show, at difficult moments when something of more importance is happening. Lights are also used on the audience at tense moments to show their reactions to the contestants, the host, questions and answers. When the contestant sees their question, the audience gets blacked out so that all attention is on the contestant and not on the audience. When Chris Tarrant is about to reveal the question the lights flash onto the stage and then the lights dim down.
Chris Tarrant uses a lot of slogans throughout the show such as “we don’t want to give you that”. This adds diversity to the programme giving a humorous and relaxed atmosphere. He says this after the contestant has won a large sum of money and he says this to add to their confidence and make them want to try their luck and win a bigger sum of money. Chris Tarrant uses a lot of techniques to create tension. Humour is a major one. Also cutting to advert breaks when contestants are about to find out whether they are right or wrong. The way Tarrant pretends the show is live makes everything seem more pressured. The use of repetition is also used, like Tarrant says “Is that your final answer?” This also makes it seem more pressured and tense. The catchphrase; “Is that your final answer” may give the impression that Chris thinks your answer is wrong and maybe is tricking you into changing it to a different answer.
“Who wants to be a millionaire” has been so successful because there has never been a game show like it before that offers a million pound prize money. The show is diverse and completely different to anything on television before. It is modern and the prize is bigger than any game show before it has offered to win in one single show. I think that when the game show first came out it wasn’t as widely watched because people thought it to be just like all the others yet in March 1999 the highest ratings for the show were recorded when 19.2 million people tuned in to watch the unfolding drama.
Personally I have watched the show on a number of different occasions and for the first few times it is enjoyable to watch however after that it just becomes repetitive and boring.
I feel that the possible million pound prize money is a very unique selling point as there are no other shows where u can win that much in one sitting. Yet I don’t feel that the show would be as interesting without that much prize money. For how long the show has been on and the amount it could have given away it has only handed over one million pounds four times. Seven people have viewed the million pound question but decided not to risk it and have simply left with £500,000. Overall throughout 344 shows and 15 series they have only given out 40 million pounds which isn’t much considering over the years they might have had to pay out much more if everyone achieved the million pound mark?