It's Your Chance of a Lifetime

Infobox Television
show_name = It's Your Chance of a Lifetime
genre = Quiz show
creator = Stephen Leahy
director = Bob Levy
developer =
presenter = Gordon Elliott
narrated = Mark Thompson
composer = Edgar Struble
language = English
num_seasons = 1
num_episodes = 5
executive_producer = Brad Lachman
Stephen Leahy
editor = David Harrison
Mark Elmer
network = FOX
first_aired = June 5, 2000
last_aired = June 10, 2000
imdb_id = 0363347

It's Your Chance of a Lifetime was an American quiz show that aired on Fox in June 2000. Australian TV personality (and talk-show host, later, future Food Network personality) Gordon Elliott hosted the show, with Mark Thompson serving as announcer (only to do the opening intro and contestant call-in at the end).

Broadcast information

"It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" aired from June 5 to June 10, 2000, but was canceled before it was to begin as a weekly series the following week. The show was supposed to have aired five nights in a row from June 5 to June 9; however, when ABC decided to put a special episode of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" opposite it on June 7, Fox moved that episode to the following day. The remaining two shows also were moved to the next day, as well.

FOX had announced that the show would air Wednesdays at 8:00PM/7:00PM CT beginning June 14, following the premiere week. A telephone number for the contestant hotline was shown at the end of every episode that aired, but the network decided against producing more episodes during that weekFact|date=August 2007.

Rules of the game

"It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" was conducted as follows:

A solo player competed for a chance to win over $1,000,000 in the form of an annuity, doing so by answering ten questions. The first question was dubbed the "Credit Card Question," with a correct answer eliminating any credit card debt the contestant had rung up (the bill itself was shredded onstage). The highest possible credit card debt was $10,000.

The next question was worth $5,000, and a contestant had to answer correctly to advance. If correct, the contestant would have a maximum of eight questions to answer, being forced to bet at least half of what they had at that particular point in the game. The catch was that each question came from one of ten different categories, and the contestant never knew where they would come from. However, the contestant was shown the category before the question was asked, so they would know and could bet accordingly.

The ten categories used in the game were: Pop Culture, Famous Events, Movies, Famous Places, TV, Pop Music, Toys And Games, People, In The News, and Animal Kingdom.

Along the way, each contestant had two "Second Chances," which were used to help the contestant. One "Second Chance" allowed the contestant to switch the question for one in a category of their choice, and the other allowed the question to be made multiple choice (allowing the contestant to see 3 answer choices for the question). Once a contestant reached the third level of questions, a "Last Chance" was awarded, allowing the contestant to choose one of the two options for a second time.

A contestant could stop after any correct answer, but an incorrect answer deducted the amount of the wager and ended the game for the contestant. Even a miss on the credit card question ended the game, as happened on one occasion.

A possible $1,280,000 was available to a contestant, although the closest anyone came was Dr. Tim Hsieh's $1,042,309 (including the credit card question). Betting $470,000 on his last question in the Pop Music category, he was asked which musical act had the biggest-grossing concert on December 31, 1999. With two chances left, he decided to pass on it (the answer: Phish). Hsieh was then asked a question in the TV category about the name of the band manager on "The Partridge Family"; after using his Last Chance to give him 3 possible answers, he correctly said Reuben Kincaid, and won the million.

Other versions

This show was based on an Australian show called "The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime" that aired on Seven. The first series, that aired in 1999, was hosted by Frank Warrick. When the show returned for a second run in 2000, it was hosted by Sandy Roberts. (America had already had a show called "The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime" air, from 1986-1987, so a name change was necessary for their version.)

In Germany, a version called "die Quizshow" aired from 2000 to 2004. It aired live on Sat.1. Hosts have included Jörg Pilawa, Christian Clerici, and Matthias Opdenhövel.

Versions have also aired in Norway, France, Italy, Israel, and other countries.