How Would You Improve WWTBAM?

[MysteryMan-123]

As we all have our varying opinions on how the show has changed over the years, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss what changes could be made to Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.

If you were one of TPTB, what would you do to make the show better?

[ghostjmf]

Put *me* on, of course. They need less-chickenshit players.

Seriously, though: I want honest players. I really don't want them to burble unless they're naturally burbly. That recent piece (I can't cite it via this tablet) highlighted how demanding a player burble gets in the way of playing. The contestant, who burbled her way through the interview 'cause she knew that's who they wanted, & was instructed to burble her way through the questions, did a big burble to buy time when she was trying to figure out a question, & was told she'd better hurry up and answer.

Talking your way through a question, taking your time, will help many people, but not if they're urged to hurry when they really need to dawdle.

[BackInTex]

Four things:

Bring back the phone game
Bring back the Ring of Fire
Cut the chit-chat
Minimize the pop-culture and ask real questions that can be answered


They need to give out more money. Using the phone game, ring of fire, and minimizing the pop-culture obscurity should solve that.

[Bob78164]

Welcome aBored! --Bob

[silverscreenselect]

No more American flag questions, and make that decision retroactive by about 15 years.

[MysteryMan-123]

No more American flag questions, and make that decision retroactive by about 15 years.

I don't recall a whole lot of questions about the American flag. Were there a lot tha I missed?

[BackInTex]

No more American flag questions, and make that decision retroactive by about 15 years.

I don't recall a whole lot of questions about the American flag. Were there a lot tha I missed?

No, just the one he missed.

[Bob78164]

No more American flag questions, and make that decision retroactive by about 15 years.

I don't recall a whole lot of questions about the American flag. Were there a lot tha I missed?

Only one that sss cares about. Can't say that I blame him. He had 64,000 reasons to care. --Bob

[jarnon]

Players should get better coaching on what to expect on the show. Examples: Many questions, especially at lower levels, contain clues and can be reasoned out, even if you don't know the answer right away. If two of the answers are obviously wrong, the 50/50 will remove those two.

Or maybe the coaching's fine and the contestants aren't paying attention.

[mellytu74]

Four things:

Bring back the phone game
Bring back the Ring of Fire
Cut the chit-chat
Minimize the pop-culture and ask real questions that can be answered


They need to give out more money. Using the phone game, ring of fire, and minimizing the pop-culture obscurity should solve that.

This ^^^

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

Halloween Week!!!! Sez de Flying Monkey

[bazodee]

Make it a meritocracy.

Scrap the damn interviews and let the best possible players work their way through TOPG. Don't have damn 20-somethings making contestant choices.

Balance the questions; a little bit of pop culture is appropriate.

Original lifelines worked just fine. If they object to Phone-a-Friend, then I'm OK with using +1

Bring back the original music; it added much more drama than the current Muzak they use.

Thankfully they got rid of randomized questions and dollar amounts. The contestant should be building excitement toward a goal. I'm OK with the actual payout amounts. The show had cred by having only a few people win big.

Allow vintage contestants to play again!

[jaybee]

Four things:

Bring back the phone game
Bring back the Ring of Fire
Cut the chit-chat
Minimize the pop-culture and ask real questions that can be answered


They need to give out more money. Using the phone game, ring of fire, and minimizing the pop-culture obscurity should solve that.

Yeah - this X3.

In the beginning there was the phone game. And it was good.
Everyday men and women, even those in blue shirts could be in their homes one evening and find themselves sitting in the ROF just a few days later.
The net result was a mega-hit TV show, huge ratings and riveting entertainment.

But the rules of TV dictate that everything must change. Now BAM is just a game show, and not a very good one at that. Sad but true.

Waiting for the day that some brilliant network executive figures out that what was old can actually qualify for what is new.

[MysteryMan-123]

Here's what I would do...

-Bring back the original music.
-Bring back the original dollar amounts (8K, 32K, 64K, 125K, etc.).
-Keep the lifelines as they are.
-Try not to add cute jokes or puns into every question.
-Make every question as straightforward as possible.
-Dim the lighting on set.
-Bring back the Phone Game.
-Give better training to the contestants.
-Cut down just a bit on pop culture questions.
-Actually make sure questions fit their values.

[Coupon Boy]

To be honest, this season did very well given the TERRIBLE time slots it had in most markets. It was on myTV at 9:30 am in my market, and that was actually one of the better time slots the show had!

The only thing that bugged me was the incessant run $5,000 winners towards the end of the season. Granted, it was better than the run of $1,000 winners towards the end of the last two seasons, but it still made me lose interest and only look at the recaps for the show rather than watch it on TV.

That's why I think the best move for the show is to introduce the Risk Format next season. For those not familiar with the Risk Format, with it players can get a 4th lifeline (probably either Cut the Question or a Wildcard whch allows you to reuse one of the other 3 lifelines would work here) but they must sacrifice one of their two thresholds in order so they o accept it. If they go down rhe Russian millionaire route of allowing the player to choose where their one threshold goes, it would naturally introduce more variety to the game wothout completely overhauling the format like Super Mix did. We'd still have the Classic Millionaire game as I doubt absolutely everyone would want to play with the risk format, but many would want to do to so, especially in Las Vegas of all places! Plus most risk mode players wouldn't put their safe haven at $5,000, so games will either be more interesting with the players winning more or them crashing to a $1,000 in a more epic fashion.

[tlynn78]

<sarcafont>They should model it after a game show that enjoyed tremendous success and popularity in the late nineties.. what was that called..?? I think Regis Philbin hosted it.</sarcafont>

[rayxtwo]

Make it a meritocracy.

Scrap the damn interviews and let the best possible players work their way through TOPG. Don't have damn 20-somethings making contestant choices.

Balance the questions; a little bit of pop culture is appropriate.

Original lifelines worked just fine. If they object to Phone-a-Friend, then I'm OK with using +1

Bring back the original music; it added much more drama than the current Muzak they use.

Thankfully they got rid of randomized questions and dollar amounts. The contestant should be building excitement toward a goal. I'm OK with the actual payout amounts. The show had cred by having only a few people win big.

Allow vintage contestants to play again!

I'm real sure that those of us still sitting on the bench would be VERY happy with that last one.

Ray

[triviawayne]

They've solved the problem with the hosts.

They've gone back to the money tree. Who cares the amounts are different, really, and 10 questions = $50,000, not $25000, so I have no problem with the amounts, although the tree may be a little awkward.

Music is fine, that isn't what makes or breaks a game show.

The questions are not a problem either, they have become easier since the stand-up era began.

The contestants are the problem.

Remember this question from 2014:

Now an 87-year-old great-grandmother, Ann Turner Cook's face has appeared on what company's products since 1928?

A. Sun-Maid B. Mrs. Buttterworth's
C. Gerber D. Chiquita

First the contestant used ATA, got 19, 40, 38 & 3 back on this. Then he jumped the question!

All he had to do was a little math to understand the person was about a year old when she got the job and it would be so obvious it was the baby food.

Maybe the test needs to be harder, I've seen more people passing in each session the last few times I went. So now we have people who can't figure out a simple question, people burning through all their lifelines before they even get to $5000, and risk-adverse players who are happy to walk at $20,000.

Of course, this season, I expect to have an even worse ATA problem than we've had since the move to Connecticut.

[geoffil]

Don't have damn 20-somethings making contestant choices.

Let MAWG's be contestants. Who decided that age should be a factor?Salty seniors would add spice to the show. Quirky people are just as interesting as 20 somethings with the same story.

[Bob Juch]

Don't have damn 20-somethings making contestant choices.

Let MAWG's be contestants. Who decided that age should be a factor?Salty seniors would add spice to the show. Quirky people are just as interesting as 20 somethings with the same story.

They may find the Las Vegas audiences are MAWGs and older. I can't see the youngsters finding nothing better to do in Sin City.

[MysteryMan-123]

Any more suggestions or ideas?

[teebee54]

Jimmmy!!!!!!! How are ya, Sugar?