Millionaire Hot Seat

History

Rumours about a new shortened version of Millionaire first began circulating in February 2009, and were confirmed when the Nine Network produced a pilot version of the format titled Millionaire: Russian Roulette in March 2009. The official title was announced as Millionaire Hot Seat, but this was later shortened to simply Hot Seat. The new format was originally promoted as a short-run series, with advertisements featuring McGuire exclaiming "20 nights! 20 million dollars!" It was announced on 7 April 2009 that Hot Seat would begin airing on 20 April 2009 in the 5:00 pm–6:00 pm weeknight timeslot and would compete against the high-rating game show, Deal or No Deal, on the Seven Network. As expected, the show's format was shortened to 30 minutes and given an overhaul of the rules and gameplay, in a system based on the Italian version of the show.

The Nine Network commissioned a second series of the show, to begin airing the week after the original 20-episode order had finished airing on 15 May 2009. The second series began airing on 18 May 2009.

A special prime time edition of Hot Seat aired at 8:00 pm on Monday, 8 June 2009, featuring a contestant, Barry Soraghan, playing for the format's first million-dollar question. Ultimately, Soraghan answered the question incorrectly, and won only $1,000. At the completion of the taped episode, Soraghan was visited live on air at his Blackburn home by McGuire, who then awarded him a two-week holiday for him and his family, as well as $5,000 in spending money. The episode achieved a ratings figure of 1,224,000 viewers nationally, and was the eleventh-highest rating program for the night, which was a vast improvement from the 812,000 viewers that Hot Seat managed in its regular timeslot on the same night.

Hot Seat was originally filmed in the iconic Studio 9 at the GTV9 Richmond premises; however, as of February 2011, it has been filmed at GTV9's new home at Docklands Studios Melbourne. The show's 500th episode went to air on 3 August 2011; that day's contestant winning $100,000.

On 15 August 2011 the four remaining couples from the 2011 season of The Block appeared on the show, attempting to win $1,000,000 for charity. But the final couple in the hot seat faltered on the seventh question. The last couple won only $1,000 for their charity.

On 3 October 2011, a The Farmer Wants a Wife special went to air, ahead of the final that was to air later that night. Farmer Frank, the last contestant in the Hot Seat, had a chance to win $100,000 for his charity but lost, winning only $1,000 for the Royal Flying Doctors Services.

On 27 July 2012, Hot Seat stopped airing for the London 2012 Olympic Games until 13 August 2012.

A local version will air exclusively for Western Australian viewers starting in 2014.

On 2 June 2014, Hot Seat celebrated its 1,000th episode. In this episode, that day's contestant Janine won $50,000. In addition, McGuire called back all the contestants telling them they each won $1,000 for appearing on its 1,000th episode.

On 16 March 2015 the top prize of $20,000 jackpotted to $541,000 and was won by Gerard Lane from Victoria, Australia.

On 13 April 2015, Hot Seat had its first revamp since it launched in 2009. The intro was slightly changed, a new set with higher resolution LED screens was introduced and new graphics using the Eurostile font. A new lifeline was also added for the final question, the Switch lifeline. The constant on the final question could use it to change the final question to another one of the same value. This lifeline was dropped after the 8 May 2015 episode, but was reinstated for episodes airing between 21 and 25 September of the same year.

The program marked 1,500 episodes on 12 October 2016.

In December 2016, it was announced that Millionaire Hot Seat would extend to one hour from 2017. Having rated strongly since its launch in 2009, which led to Nine News regaining its ratings dominance on the east coast, the show started to lose ground to rival show The Chase Australia in the last fifteen months.

Edwin Daly (29 August 2016)

On 29 August 2016, 67-year-old Edwin Daly became the first Australian contestant (and the fourth worldwide) on the Hot Seat to win the top prize of AU$1,000,000.

2009–16

Designed to be a faster-paced format compared to the traditional Millionaire, Hot Seat involves six contestants playing each episode. The contestants take turns trying to be the one in the "Hot Seat" who reaches the goal amount and answers the question correctly. The goal amount is the highest amount on the money tree (shown on the right) and is reduced by one step for every wrong answer given. The traditional three lifelines are replaced by a single "pass" lifeline, which will pass the current question to the next contestant in line (who cannot pass that question further) and send the current contestant to the end of the line.

Each question is given a time limit: with 15 seconds allocated for the first five questions, 30 for the middle five, and 45 for the last five. The timer starts after McGuire reads the question and the four possible answers. If a player fails to give an answer in the time limit, it is considered an automatic use of the pass lifeline. In the case that time expires and the current contestant cannot pass the question (either because they were passed the current question or they used their pass already), they are treated as if they gave an incorrect answer.

Unlike other Millionaire formats, the game does not immediately end on a wrong answer. Instead the following happens: the current contestant is eliminated from the game, the next contestant in line becomes the "Hot Seat" contestant while all remaining players move up one chair, and the goal amount is reduced to the next lowest tier on the money tree. Once the players are shuffled around, a new question is now asked and play resumes. Additionally, contestants may not walk away from the game under any circumstance.

The game ends either when all contestants are eliminated or when the question for the highest value in the money tree is answered. If the question on the last tier is answered correctly, the answering player receives the value of the question. If it is answered incorrectly, the last player to be eliminated receives either nothing (which means that nobody receives any prize money for that show), or $1,000 if the fifth question milestone is reached. No final contestant has ever gone away empty-handed. Another difference from the traditional format of Millionaire, the only guaranteed sum of money is the $1,000 for answering the fifth question correctly. This sum will be awarded to the contestant that is playing the final question of the money tree or to the last remaining player after the other five players are eliminated. If a contestant did not get a chance to answer a question and sit on the hot seat, they may get a chance to return at a later time to play the game as the producers often invite such contestants back. However if a contestant had a chance to play a question but passed their place in the seat, they are eliminated and will likely not be invited to return.

Variations

During the second half of 2011, audio and visual questions were introduced to the format. Either an audio or a visual question would be asked once per episode, usually towards the beginning of the game.

During 2015, the "Switch" lifeline was added for contestants on the final question. This allowed the contestant to switch to a different question if they were unhappy with it. This feature was soon dropped on 8 May 2015, but was brought back for a week of episodes from 21 to 25 September of the same year.

Later in 2015, the "Ask a Friend" lifeline was added in for contestants. Similar to the traditional "Phone a Friend" lifeline, the contestant is able to ask their designated friend or family member in the audience to help them answer the question. Before the player can use the lifeline, they must answer three consecutive questions after the $1000 'safe level'. The feature was added for a week of episodes from 14 to 18 September 2015.

2017–present

Starting 23 January 2017, Millionaire changed its format to mix both the traditional format with the Hot Seat format. In this format, the show was lengthened to a full-hour show but is divided into two parts: Fastest Finger First and Hot Seat.

In this version of Fastest Finger First, all six players will be using a touch screen to lock in their answers. The round is played similar to the original format of FFF, where there is a question presented with four possible answers and the contestant must lock in the singular answer to the question. (This is different from the second version of Fastest Finger First where the contestants must put the four possible choices into a designated order.) A minor difference between the original version and this new version is that the players will only have 10 seconds to lock in a guess rather than the normal 20 seconds. Additionally, some questions may be audio or visual questions with an audio clip or visual still accompanying the question. In this part of the game, there will be fifteen questions asked to all six players. Whichever player answers the most questions correctly in the shortest amount of time will receive a bonus $1000 check. That check is theirs to keep unless they choose to give it back during the Hot Seat game in exchange for a lifeline. After all fifteen questions have been asked, the game moves into the Hot Seat round starting with the player in the first player position (regardless of how they finished in Fastest Finger First).

The new Hot Seat round plays exactly like it did before with one exception, the player with the $1000 bonus from Fastest Finger First can now buy a lifeline when it is their turn in the Hot Seat. If a player is stuck on a question, they may return the $1000 check to McGuire to pick one of the following lifelines: 50-50 (much like the original, the computer will choose two wrong answers and eliminate them), Ask Your Friend (similar to the U.S.' Plus One lifeline, the contestant can bring a designated companion to the stage to help with the question), or Switch (as in "Switch The Question", works similar to "Swap The Question" where the current question is removed from play and is replaced with a new one). To use this lifeline, the contestant will simply ask for a lifeline to stop the clock and McGuire will present the choices to the contestant. Upon resolution of the lifeline, the clock will restart.

Controversies

In one episode, a contestant gave an answer to the final question, but McGuire told the contestant that she had not answered it in time and checked with the producers to see whether this was a "pass" or she was to be awarded $1,000. While the decision was being made, the contestant insisted that she had two seconds left on the clock. In the end, the contestant won $1,000.

International versions

There have been 12 different versions of Millionaire Hot Seat since the original Australian version debuted.