The show features a quiz competition with contestants attempting to win a top prize of $1,000,000 by answering a series of multiple-choice questions, usually of increasing difficulty.

However, the contestant may choose to walk away after being presented with a question, allowing them to keep all the money they have won to that point; afterwards (in most cases) the host will usually ask them to state what answer they would have gone for if they had continued, and reveal if it would have been correct or incorrect.

However, if this happened while the Double Dip lifeline was in effect, the contestant's winnings were instead reduced to the last safety net they had reached, in the same manner of getting a wrong answer for the second time.

[30] ABC originally offered Vieira hosting duties on the syndicated Millionaire to sweeten one of her re-negotiations for the network's daytime talk show The View, which she was moderating at the time.

Davies was so captivated by everything that he had seen and heard, from host Chris Tarrant's intimate involvement with the contestant to the show's lighting system and music tracks, that he chose to abandon his work on the $64,000 Question revival in favor of introducing Millionaire to American airwaves, convinced that it would become extraordinarily popular.

Those ineligible included employees, immediate family or household members, and close acquaintances of SPE, Disney, or any of their respective affiliates or subsidiaries; television stations that broadcast the syndicated version; or any advertising agency or other firm or entity engaged in the production, administration, or judging of the show.

The 10,000 to 20,000 candidates who answered all three questions correctly were selected into a random drawing in which approximately 300 contestants competed for ten spots on the show using the same phone quiz method.

The syndicated version's potential contestants, depending on tryouts, were required to pass an electronically scored test[68] comprising a set of thirty questions which had to be answered within a 10-minute time limit.

[70] On GSN's Gameshow Hall of Fame special, the narrator described the Strachan tracks as "mimicking the sound of a beating heart", and stated that as the contestant worked their way up the money ladder, the music was "perfectly in tune with their ever-increasing pulse".

Media scholar Dr. Robert Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University, stated that the show's lighting system made the contestant feel as though they were outside of prison when an escape was in progress.

[2] When the shuffle format was introduced, the Hot Seats and corresponding monitors were replaced with a single podium, so that the contestant and host stood throughout the game and were also able to walk around the stage.

[76] The series, of which episodes were originally shown only a day after their initial taping, was promoted to regular status on January 9, 2000,[77] and, at the height of its popularity, was airing on ABC five nights a week.

The staff planned on switching it to a format which would emphasize comedy more than the game and feature a host other than Philbin,[79] but in the end, the primetime show was canceled, with its final episode airing on June 27, 2002.

Slow progress in the ratings led to some stations dropping the series outright several months into its first year, while others relocated Millionaire to less than desirable timeslots such as late night.

Looking to bolster its offerings in the two hours between the end of CBS' daytime schedule and its first evening newscast of the day, which had been an ongoing problem for the station for years, Millionaire was one of two major additions to WCBS' lineup for the 2002–2003 season.

The station gave it the 4:00 p.m. weekday timeslot that had housed Weakest Link,[83][84] a syndicated version of another network primetime quiz show (in this case, produced by NBC) that had launched in January 2002.

In April 2003, with the season in its final weeks, WCBS announced its addition of The People's Court to its lineup for fall 2003 after the revived series had aired since its 1997 debut on WNBC.

[85] ABC announced in July 2003 that it would be ceasing programming the 12:30 p.m. timeslot and cancelling the serial that had occupied that slot since 1997, the General Hospital spin-off Port Charles.

[86] ABC was impressed enough with the ratings improvement that the network, with one or two exceptions (WLS-TV in Chicago and KABC-TV in Los Angeles, though the latter would eventually add the series) picked up Millionaire for the other stations it owned.

Following the 2014–15 season, Millionaire was nearly canceled after a disagreement with BVT's successor, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, the owner of the format rights through its subsidiary 2waytraffic.

[87] According to e-mails released in the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, Millionaire's declining ratings prompted DADT to demand a dramatically reduced licensing fee for renewal, which SPE was hesitant to accept.

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, first-run episodes were canceled by the series' current producer, Paramount Network, as were all reruns.

[23] Other successful celebrity contestants throughout the show's run have included Drew Carey,[80] Rosie O'Donnell,[80] Norm Macdonald,[80] Charles Esten,[99] Lauren Lapkus,[100] Anderson Cooper,[101] and Julie Bowen,[102] all of whom won $500,000 for each of their charities.

[105] Special weeks have also included shows featuring questions concerning specific topics, such as professional football, celebrity gossip, movies, and pop culture.

The finale of the tenth anniversary special, which aired on August 23, 2009, featured Ken Basin, an entertainment lawyer from Los Angeles, California, who went on to become the first contestant to play a $1,000,000 question in the "clock format".

Murray, who was the final contestant to earn a spot in the tournament by virtue of his $50,000 win the week before it began on November 6, was the only qualifier to attempt a million dollar question.

[25] A 2020 reboot of the show featuring celebrity guests playing for charity is executive produced by Kimmel, who is also the host, Davies and Mike Richards, with the latter left the position after the first season.

Between 1999 and 2001, Jellyvision produced five video game adaptations based upon the original primetime series for personal computers and Sony's PlayStation console, all of them featuring Philbin's likeness and voice.

[139] In 2007, Imagination Games released a DVD version of the show, based on the 2004–08 format and coming complete with Vieira's likeness and voice,[140] as well as a quiz book[141] and a 2009 desktop calendar.

[148] Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: The Album (Celador Records), by Keith & Matthew Strachan, with additional tracks by Amoure, was released August 1, 2000, and features songs based on the show.