Who will become a millionaire? was this year 25 years old and celebrated a big anniversary edition. But since 1999, when the first episode of the popular quiz show was broadcast, numerous shows have emerged in his wake that wanted to overtake Günther Jauch.
More money, more candidates, more glamour: How the competition wanted to stand out
Who will become a millionaire? didn’t have an easy start. Quiz shows seemed to interest no one and the initial ratings were also moderate. But today it’s hard to imagine life without Jauch’s show. But in the early 2000s there were countless quiz shows that you may still be familiar with.
The chance of a lifetime
It was probably the most expensive quiz show that Sat.1 has ever produced: The chance of a lifetime. The concept was quite simple: As a candidate you were initially given a D-Mark and for every correct answer a zero was added to the total. So after answering seven questions correctly you could get the maximum amount of 10 million marks win.
The problem with the show was the sheer choice of contestants. Because Sat.1 invited a whopping 1,000 candidates to the showof which only one person was able to secure a place on the coveted council chair. In addition to a few mishaps, the concept failed to catch on and the quiz show became canceled after six issues.
The quiz show
The quiz show made “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” a little more competition. Because instead of security levels that the candidates could fall back on when in doubt, they let her Use money yourself. However, no one could win a million, but only maximum 512,000 DM.
As you can see from the prizes up for grabs, The Quiz Show was rather cheap, which was probably the reason why the show was canceled after a few years. Moderators like Jörg Pilawa and Matthias Opdenhövel couldn’t do much to change that. Jörg Pilawa was able to escape to ARD after a year, where he then moderated The Quiz with Jörg Pilawa.
Ca$h – The One Million Mark Quiz
Based on the American model, Ca$h was implemented in Germany and moderated by Ulla Kock am Brink. In the quiz show, a team of six played for the coveted million. The However, game concept was so complicatedthat it had to be explained in advance with text panels.
There was an initial Terminator round in which one player was eliminated; a team captain who won more money than the rest of the round, and the winners of the Terminator rounds also received more money. The concept did not catch on The show was canceled after 46 episodes.
Quiz shows paved the way for the future
Of course, this is only an excerpt, because countless other quiz shows were produced during this time, such as Multi-millionaire, twenty-one or alone against all. But this wave of quizzes laid the foundation for many game concepts and continuations of today’s quiz formats.