Long-running TV hit: 25 years of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” – Some became stars

Long-running TV hit: 25 years of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” – Some became stars

“Who wants to be a millionaire?” began at the millennium. The show has now been around for a quarter of a century. What constitutes success? It’s not just quiz questions, says Günther Jauch.

25 years of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” didn’t leave Günther Jauch’s moderator chair unscathed. If you look closely, the seat appears to be pretty battered, as there are clear traces of torn adhesive tape on the backrest. “At some point I saw that everything was torn open and then I desperately tried to stick it together,” the 68-year-old entertainer told the German Press Agency. In such a situation, others would probably have to fear that their chair would be sawed into – but “WWM” without Jauch, no, that would be hard to imagine. On October 17th, RTL will celebrate the long-running TV hit with a big anniversary show.

The beginning wasn’t very promising

It sounds like a myth, but initially no more than four programs were actually planned. The first episode was bad in terms of ratings. “The second one was really bad,” Jauch remembers. “The third was very mediocre and the fourth was really good. And then the idea came up: Let’s do four more.” To date, this has resulted in more than 1,600 editions. At times the show ran three times a week – Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays – and had an average viewership of almost ten million. The best program attracted 14.2 million people to the screen.

Such ratings are history, but “WWM” is still doing very well with up to five million viewers. The show also appeals to all age groups. It’s surprising that Jauch still doesn’t have a written contract – and hasn’t been able to get a salary increase in 23 years. However, there are no complaints from him: “The fee is more than adequate.”

The show cannot be planned

So what’s so special about the show? It can’t be planned much. “I just get a small card beforehand that says: What are the people called? How old are they? Where are they from? Where did they go to school? When did they get married? Who are your three telephone jokers? Done. More It doesn’t actually say anything about it.” Everything else must arise from the situation. And this brings us closer to the actual secret of the show’s success.

One reason is certainly that viewers can guess at home and test their knowledge. But that alone would hardly have carried “WWM” through a quarter of a century. No, the really exciting thing is that you keep meeting new, interesting people. It is the candidates who make the show successful – coupled with Jauch’s ability to get them to talk in front of the camera.

The “stupid” suddenly comes into its own

Sometimes the candidate’s chair almost becomes a psychologist’s couch. It’s amazing what even shy people reveal about themselves. Jauch explains this with the relatively intimate atmosphere in the studio, in which two people essentially sit opposite each other in front of screens – the audience disappears into the darkness.

“There were people here, for example, who were always neglected in their families, who were always the “stupid ones,” and then suddenly they came out on top and won a six-figure sum,” he describes. For such candidates, the show could be a liberation. “The best example is our second million-dollar winner, Marlene Grabherr. She was an unemployed housewife who you could tell that life hadn’t been particularly kind to her up to that point. She said that a little hesitantly. And like them with us became a heroine, that was great.”

From candidate to bestselling author

Another spectacular case is Bastian Bielendorfer. He said on the show that he was a teacher’s child and had written a book about how terrible it was – but he couldn’t find a publisher for it. “He was very funny and then called his father, the teacher, as a telephone joker – very funny dialogue. A publisher then contacted him and asked him to send him the manuscript – but he hadn’t written a single line. There He then locked himself away for 14 days and wrote this book day and night so that the lie wouldn’t be exposed. Then it became a bestseller – and today he is touring the country with his own comedy program.”

Or, another example: Aaron Troschke, salesman in a bakery shop in Berlin. “I dragged him through three shows, he was so entertaining. He then left us with 125,000 euros and is now a social media star.”

Even Günther Jauch doesn’t always know the right answer

Some regular viewers of the show claim that they can tell Günther Jauch very quickly whether he likes a candidate or not. Is that correct? “It could be,” he says. “I’m also committed to not acting crazy on the show. Some candidates can also be annoying.” Or really wanted to get him to give them a tip. This is “in complete ignorance of the fact that I don’t know the right answer to every question. And the show isn’t called ‘Supervised Winning’ – you have to do something on your own initiative.”

That’s why there are always shows where he thinks “okay, that wasn’t the highlight.” But then conversations arise again that he really enjoys. “You can break down clichés here. Sometimes people come in and you think: What kind of bore is this? And then suddenly it breaks out of them. Others come in here with a big aplomb, spread out their CV and then have nothing In that respect it’s like my mother-in-law once said: God’s big zoo is here and it’s fun to look at.”

Source: Stern

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