"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" is no longer the No. 1 show in America, but it still reaches more than 80 million viewers a week. The six-figure cash prizes the show doles out are chump change next to the millions in advertising it rakes in every night. For most programs, that would be enough. End of story.
But ABC and "Millionaire" executive producer Michael Davies are determined that "Millionaire" remain a force to be reckoned with. To that end, they have quietly launched a campaign to address what they believe is the show's Achilles heel: the preponderance of white male contestants who make it to the fabled "hot seat" opposite Regis Philbin. the country.
And if the results have at times been embarrassing - two people chosen at auditions recently made it to the "Millionaire" hot seat only to leave empty-handed - Davies insists he is doing the right thing. "We want diversity but with a small 'd,' " he said in a recent interview.
In Davies' mind, diversity means that contestants "come from different towns, different occupations, different interests as well as different minority groups that have not been represented on the show. They give us some freshness on the show and some stories we didn't have before." Stories are all-important on "Millionaire," much as they are on most prime-time TV shows.
Contestants are interviewed intensively before each taping so they have anecdotes to tell Regis when they make it to the hot seat. This human-interest element is cited by fans and critics alike as a key to the show's broad appeal and success. But success also has made "Millionaire" a frequent target of diversity groups. Black comedians have had fun with the show's conspicuous lack of faces of color.
And in a remarkable moment last year, Philbin made an on-air plea for contestants other than white males.
For all that, "Millionaire" can honestly claim to have one of television's most diverse audiences. Two of its four weekly episodes rank in the top 20 in the Nielsen ratings among black and white viewers alike, according to the annual survey of viewing habits by race released this week by TN Media of New York. Only seven other TV shows can say that.
Now Davies and his staff are holding auditions in selected cities, where contestant wannabes first must complete a written quiz. "These were difficult, difficult tests," Davies said, "and we only took people who did really, really well on the tests." Those who qualified were interviewed, and from that group the contestants were chosen and flown to New York.
In mid-January, "Millionaire" began to air episodes featuring these hand-picked contestants. At first, it seemed like the experiment had been a huge mistake. Two contestants bombed out answering the super-easy opening round of questions. A husband and wife walked away with precisely $2,000 between them. By the end of last month, the average prize for these "picked" contestants was just $35,000 - less than half of what "unpicked" players had averaged in November and December.
Davies thinks there are three reasons for this. The picked contestants are willing to take more gambles than earlier players. They guess at questions they are unsure of, instead of availing themselves of all three of their "lifelines." Second, they have a more laissez-faire attitude. Davies thinks the married couple, for example, approached it something like this - "we arrived here with nothing, we're playing a game, if we leave with $1,000 it's more than we came with."
Finally, the contestants who are sought out aren't as clued in about the show as the ones who call the 800 number to qualify every night. "The people who call our phone lines are very, very loyal viewers," he said. "They watch a lot and, from a strategy point of view, they play the game smarter. I think a lot of people we picked came to the auditions not knowing as much about the program. Their friends and family said, 'Hey, you ought to try out for this.' "
Going forward, Davies said he will use a blend of what he calls "picked and unpicked" contestants on "Millionaire." And yes, he plans to bring the auditions to Kansas City someday. "You know, if this show stays around on television as long as I think it will, we will come to every American city eventually," Davies said.
