Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (Euro Republics)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a Euroish television quiz gameshow which would offer a maximum cash prize of €1,000,000 for answering 15 successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty as a team or singular.

The show was originally based on and follows the same general format of the original version of the show from the United Kingdom, and is part of the international Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise.

It is produced by 2waytraffic International (formerly Celador International) and TV3 Productions. The show was first premiered on 1st January 1999 on TV3 as a nightly ten-day event. The show was first hosted by Christian Hargreaves, but it was replaced in 2019 by Joe Martin.

It notably features more lifelines than other variations of the franchise, but has a higher number of questions, at 18.

History
The format of the show was created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight, who had earlier created a number of the promotional games for British presenter Chris Tarrant's morning show on Capital FM in London, such as the bong game.

Following the massive success of the format when it launched in the UK on the ITV network in September 1998, the format was quickly sold to the Euro Republics, who were the first international territory to pick up the show. The programme was assigned a timeslot of one hour, to provide room for three commercial breaks, with episodes produced by UK production company Celador. The first series was broadcast, as it was in the UK initially, as a ten-day event series, beginning on Friday 1st January 1999 and finishing on Sunday 10th January.

After it's original run in January, WWTBAM? returned on Friday 5th November 1999, running until Monday 15th, and again from 3rd March 2000.

Starting from September 2000, the show's scheduling was altered, with the show now airing on Friday nights at 9.30pm, incorporating the Euroish Lottery draw at 10pm. Whereas it had previously been drawed during the advertisement breaks in previous series, it would now become a part of the show itself. To accommodate this, a major change in the format was initiated, with the programme becoming completely live. Regular Saturday and Monday night editions would compliment the other major lottery draws.

WWTBAM? was initally axed in 2005, with Deal or No Deal becoming the new flagship gameshow on TV3. Declining ratings were said to be the main reason behind it's axing. ,, homegrown detective drama, a new talent show, The News Show and films took WWTBAM's place in the Monday, Friday and Saturday slots between 9.30 and 10.30 pm.

It was announced in October 2019 that the show would return to Euroish screens with Joe Martin as the new presenter. It was also announced it would be returning to the original network, TV3.

Lifelines
In the Euroish edition of WWTBAM, there are six lifelines, more than most other versions.
 * Phone A Friend is where a contestant can call their friend or family member to ask them the question to see if they know the answer. It was sponsored by Eurocom throughout the original run but was replaced by O2 for the 2021 revival.
 * 50:50: the computer eliminates two wrong answers from the four possible ones, leaving only one remaing wrong answer, and the correct one.
 * Ask The Audience: the audience takes voting pads attached to their seats and votes for the answer that they believe is correct. The computer tallies the results and displays them as percentages to the contestant.
 * Switch the Question – The computer replaces the current question with another of the same difficulty. The contestant can not reinstate any lifelines used on the original question. Introduced in the “Evolution“ era in 2008.
 * Double Dip – One of two lifelines created for the Super Millionaire spin-off of the US version. When used, this lifeline allowed contestants to make two guesses at a question, but forbade them from using any other lifelines they had left or from walking away with their current winnings. If the contestant first used 50:50 and then used Double Dip on the same question, the correct would be guaranteed.
 * Jump The Question: Jumps to the next question

Who Wants to Be a Mini Millionaire?
Between 2001 and 2008 and again from 2021 onwards, a junior version of the show, entitled Who Wants to Be a Mini Millionaire? airs on TV3 as part of it's children's strands, The Fix and 3C. The show featured contestants between the ages of 8 and 17, and often includes easier, more child-accessible questions than it's main counterpart.