Who wants to be a Millionaire?

Let me first say that this is very much for my NA students, as we've talked in class about the rise of the TV quiz show, in particular the ever so popular "Who wants to be a Millionaire?"

The craze all began in the US in the 50s with this pioneering show, The $64,000 dollar Question. Those were the days of B&W television!

As popular as 64,000 was Twenty-One, which pulled huge ratings until a shocking scandal (which went all the way, can you believe it, to the US Congress as you can watch on the video down below) undermined the audience's faith in the programme, and made quiz shows go into decline temporarily.

But like the mythical Phoenix firebird that is reborn from it own ashes, quiz shows grew again in the 70s and so did the prizes, which got bigger and bigger. But it was not until the late 90s that a key breakthrough came, to be precise when "Who wants to be a Millionaire" first appeared on British television, and the rest is history. And history was made when an American by the name of John Carpenter (a tax agent himself, isn't it funny!) became the first contestant ever to win the staggering sum of 1,000,000 dollars. This is John on his way to success:

And click on the link for the precise moment that made television history, November 19th, 1999.

Nearly a year later, on November 12th 2000, Judith Keppel first won one million pounds on the UK version of the quiz - and became the 12th "millionaire" across the world:

Last but not least, there's the story of English "professional backpacker" Paddy Spooner, who won 250,000 dollars on the Australian quiz show in 1999 (as shown in the clip below) and the same amount in sterling pounds at the British show a year later, before he eventually trusted his luck (and lost) to the toss of a coin in Ireland.

So what do you think of these "big money" quiz shows? Would you like to appear on one of them? Post your comments here, will you?