Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Russian game show)

"Кто хочет стать миллионером?" (Transliteration: Kto hochyet stat millionyerom?, English translation: Who wants to become a millionaire?) is a Russian game show on the original format of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". In this game show, each contestant can win 3 million rubles by answering 15 questions from different areas of knowledge.

History of the game

Premiere of the game was on 1 October 1999 on NTV channel. The game was called "О, счастливчик!" (transliteration: Oh, Schastlivchi!, translation: Oh, lucky man!), and game's host was Dmitry Dibrov. The program became very popular and it was awarded by Russian Prize TEFI.

In 2001, program moved to the channel ORT and changed the name and the host. Now the game is called "Кто хочет стать миллионером" and the game's host became Maksim Galkin.

Rules of the game

In order to earn 3 million rubles, it is needed to correctly answer 15 questions from various fields of knowledge. Each question has 4 answers, of whom only one is correct. Game have a specific prize value:

The prize isn't added to the prize that was won before (eg. someone won 500 rubles, and then he won 1000 rubles, so he wins 1000 rubles, not 1500 (500+1000). Fifth and tenth questions are guaranteed sums (called "несгораемыми"), so if someone would lose at question for 200,000 rubles, he would win 100,000 rubles.

Player can use 4 lifelines:
* "50:50" (Fifty Fifty)
* "Звонок другу" (Phone a Friend)
* "Помощь зала" (Ask the Audience)
* "Три мудреца" (Three Wise Men)

Changes in the game

# In September 2001, the contestant fastest finger monitors were changed - now they can be deployed at 180°.
# In 2002 the studio has completely changed.
# On 17 September 2005 main prize increased and added SMS game for viewers.
# On 21 October 2006 the "Три мудреца" (Three Wise Men) lifeline was added.
# On 1 May 2008 the 100,000 rubles guaranted summ was cancelled.

Winners of the game

# Igor Sazeev from St. Petersburg won 1 million rubles on 21 March 2001
# Irina and Yuri Chudinovskih, from Kirov won 1 million rubles on 18 March 2003
# Svetlana Yaroslavtseva, from Troitsk won 3 million rubles on 19 February 2006

External links

* [http://www.wmedia.ru/million_n/ Official website of the game]
* [http://www.khsm.ru/ Unofficial game's website]