Millionaire to Return to ABC
The hit game show will return to television this summer.
According to the New York Times, ABC's hit game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? will return with new episodes this summer. Original host Regis Philbin will also be returning.
For a two-week tournament that will begin on Aug. 9 at 8:00 p.m., Millionaire will air new episodes on five consecutive nights. The finale will air on the following Sunday, the 23rd of August.
The game show became an instant success after it first aired in August 1999. For the next three years, it was the top-rated prime-time show on television. Millionaire helped ABC reach the top of the network ratings. At its height, Millionaire drew in about 29 million viewers. Since it was so popular, ABC aired the show as many as four nights a week in order to maintain the show and network's rankings. By the end of 2001, however, only 10 million viewers tuned in and ABC subsequently stopped airing new episodes the following year. The show now runs in syndication though, with Meredith Vieira as the host.
Recently, interest in the game show has been revived, thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, which featured the Indian version of the show.
