Regional Variations of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
January 18, 2002
Italy: once a contestant reaches the halfway mark, topless women in glittery g-strings descent from the roof, along with an avalanche of balloons and streamers, in a musical spectacular.
Fiji: the ‘phone a friend’ lifeline is replaced with a ‘phone a host-coup’ lifeline.
Iraq: all questions are based around the subject of Our Great Imperial Leader. Additionally, any contestant who fails to reach the one million dinar mark is stoned to death by the audience.
Belgium: winning millionaire contestants are held under monitored security for a period of 72 hours after a series of horrific suicides from past winners. During this time, the winners are counseled on how to deal with the cruel blow that they have won one million Francs, yet live in a country where there is absolutely nothing of worth to do or buy.
China: contestants are secretly provided with answers before the show’s taping, to ensure everyone is a winner. However, all prize money must be donated back to the Chinese government under law.
Germany: Aldi, the gigantor German supermarket chain is a major sponsor of the German edition of Millionaire. In addition to extensive advertising rights during commercials, after each contestant finishes the game a number of Aldi representatives take to the stage and announce this week’s specials. This is due to the extra time required for deutschemark to Euro conversion.
Rwanda: due to a slightly ailing currency, this localised version of the quiz show has all elements of money removed. Instead, players are quizzed on local goings-on in surrounding villages, with no real prize except a brief moment of happiness, before being dragged back down into the absolute living hell of disease and hunger that is their world. Broadcast in the local Swahili language, the title of the program roughly translates to ‘Ooh, Did You Know?’
Japan: contestants are forced to answer programs whilst strapped to a rotating wheel, wearing only a large diaper. A shuddering electric shock is the penalty for an incorrect answer.
New Zealand: this localised edition only lasted one episode. However, it was entirely a sly ratings stunt: New Zealand’s TV2, in full knowledge that their budget barely allowed for $10,000, let alone $1,000,000; gave an Australian the hosting job. All questions revolved around Australia’s sporting history - until the first contestant inevitably snapped and began strangling the host, screaming that Australia wasn’t as fucking good at sport as it would like to think. The program was immediately taken off air, but garnered a good week of publicity, during which TV2 alerted as many people as possible to the fact that their new ‘Must See Monday’ featured new episodes of Friends and The Drew Carey Show, back-to-back.
Sweden: the show is hosted by Aqua, who also composed the show’s theme, ‘Millionaire, Wham Bam!’ Special thirty-second long songs are sung by Aqua for each monetary tier a contestant progresses - the audience is encouraged to actively participate and sing along. A compilation CD of extended mixes of each of the ‘correct question’ songs was recently released in Sweden.
