This is the first season of the U.S. primetime version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. It premiered on August 16, 1999 and ran until June 27, 2002. This is the U.S. version's only season that lasted continuously for three years. Hosted by Regis Philbin.
This long season was also divided into 6 seasons:
- 1 (August 16, 1999 - August 29, 1999)
- 2 (November 7, 1999 - November 24, 1999)
- 3 (January 9, 2000 - May 31, 2000)
- 4 (June 1, 2000 - October 1, 2000)
- 5 (October 3, 2000 - September 9, 2001)
- 6 (September 10, 2001 - June 27, 2002)
Lifelines[]
In this season, the three standard lifelines were used:
Episodes[]
For the full list, see List of episodes
Trivia[]
- The first episode featured clips from the UK version of the show in the intro.
- On August 18, 1999, for the first time in the USA, the biggest audience failure took place. On his 11th question, contestant Norman Payne used the Ask the Audience lifeline where 70% voted for the wrong answer, and only 12% were right.
- On August 19, 1999, the right order of FFF was ABCD.
- Doug Van Gundy is the first contestant who used a lifeline (Ask the Audience) on his 1st question (the lifeline was later reinstated due to the fact that his first question had two correct answers). Robby Roseman was the next to use a lifeline (50:50) on his first question that he ended up getting wrong.
- David Honea is a contestant who later returned as the final contestant in the August 1999 series due to a bad question.
- On November 9, 1999, after contestant Joel Winkelsas uses the "50:50" and "Ask the Audience" lifelines, the audience votes almost equally (49% and 51%).
- Mark McDermott is the first contestant in the U.S. version who answered the penultimate question wrong.
- Tim Shields is the second contestant who answered the $16,000 question wrong because of a research error. He later returned due to the mistake and won $500,000.
- Kurt Warkenthien missed his $64,000 question, which was later ruled to have no correct answer. He declined to return for another chance, though.
- Rob Moran is the series' 100th contestant.
- Shannon McGehee is the fastest contestant (aired January 12, 2000), who in the FF managed to press all the buttons in just 0.87 seconds. She even admitted that she guessed.
- Steven Maurice Clark, who appeared on April 23, 2000, was the first African-American contestant in the hot seat.
- On May 18, 2000, the 100th episode aired.
- Jeremy Conklin and Sal Mecca used all 3 lifelines under $1,000 and still ended up with $0.
- On May 18, 2000, June 18, 2000, March 9, 2001, June 26, 2001, and November 26, 2001, this country had its first ever Fastest Finger First Tiebreakers.
- David Goodman (July 11, 2000) is the youngest $1,000,000 winner at 24 years old.
- On the July 13, 2000 episode, a bad faster finger question occurred. The order was incorrect and Oliver Wade got into the hot seat by this mistake, although he was allowed to keep his $32,000. Christopher Liptrap got the true correct order right in the fastest time and would later return on September 21, 2000.
- Although Lisa Leslie and Stacy Dragila didn't make it to the hot seat on the 1st Olympic Edition, both of them still split $16,000 with their charities.
- On December 6, 2000, December 7, 2000, January 5, 2001, May 10, 2001, and November 5, 2001, this country has its Fastest Finger First Failures.
- According tvtango.com website, the most watched episode is January 20, 2000 (32,500,000 viewers).
- On January 10, 2001, the 200th episode aired.
- On Rockstar Edition, all the remaining celebrities (Howie D., Kevin Richardson, Sisqo, Emily Robison and Chaka Khan), who did not appear in the hot seat are each given $32,000 for their respective charities.
- Pete Booker missed his $250,000 question which was later ruled to be flawed. He returned in an unaired segment and walked away with $125,000.
- Lori Bailey missed her $125,000 question which was later ruled to be flawed. She returned in an unaired segment and walked away with $64,000.
- On April 27, 2001, all three contestants (Jeanne Pomenti, Tom L. Cubbage, and Adam Edgell) who sat in the hot seat reached the $32,000 question without using a lifeline, the only time in the show's run that that many people accomplished that feat during a single episode.
- On May 6, 2001, on John Leguizamo's $125,000 question, 58% of audience failed, and 33% were right.
- Matthew Sherman is the youngest contestant (May 22, 2001 appeared).
- On August 7, 2001, 300th episode aired.
- Mark McDermott, Lawrence Caplan, Rudy Reber, Richard Klimkiewicz, David Duchovny, Kati Knudsen, Nick Meyer, and Raymelle Greening lost $218,000/missed the $500,000 question.
- That was the biggest amount ever lost on the primetime version, until Ken Basin, the last contestant of 10th Anniversary Primetime Celebration and the primetime version on August 23, 2009, when he lost $475,000/missed the $1,000,000 question.
- On December 17, 2001 (Celebrity Edition), Meredith Vieira appeared, who in 2002 became the U.S. version's host. She won $250,000.
- John Carpenter, David Goodman and Steve Perry are contestants who saved all three lifelines to Top Prize question, and Moe Cain saved all three of his until the penultimate question.
- Robby Roseman and Brian Fodera are contestants who answered the $100 question wrong and walked away with nothing.
- Armand Kachigian, and Kevin Smith, winners of $500,000 and $1,000,000 respectively on the syndicated show, were Fastest Finger finalists on the primetime version. Obviously, neither reached the hot seat.
- Brad Bianucci was actually the last contestant to play during the November 1999 run, but his game was never aired due to time constraints. He won $125,000.
- Although Gene Simmons, Marion Ross, and Dan Jansen missed their $16,000, $8,000, and $32,000 questions respectively, $32,000 still went to their charities.
- Karla Robinson, Debby Mittelman, and Jennifer Starks are the only female contestants to win $0.
- Stephanie Girardi, Pat Thompson, and Mary Burke are the only female contestants to win $500,000; out of the three, Stephanie is the only one who would've gotten her final question wrong had she not walked away.
- Tom O'Brien, Pat Thompson, and Mary Burke are the only contestants who would've gotten their final question right had they not walked away.
- Rosie O'Donnell, Drew Carey, and Norm Macdonald are the only celebrity contestants to win $500,000; out of the three, Norm is the only one who would've gotten his final question right had he not walked away (though in reality, Regis constantly reminded him of the $468,000 risk if he got it wrong).
- All winners of $500,000 or $1,000,000 were paid a lump sum: it wasn't until the syndicated version that higher-ranking winners were allowed to take the winnings as an annuity (paid out over a longer period of time).
- Contestants stayed for three days at the Empire Hotel in New York, all expenses paid by ABC.
Intros[]
Intro #4
Sources[]
| Preceded by N/A |
U.S. Seasons Season 1 |
Succeeded by Season 1 (syndication) |
| Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (U.S. version) |
|---|
| Primetime: Original • Super Millionaire • 10th Anniversary • Revival (1 • 2 • 3) |
| Syndication: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 |