What Are the Odds of Winning on Millionaire?

in Careers entertainment by marcus — February 20, 2009 at 2:55 pm | 0 comments

Oscar sweetheart Slumdog Millionaire is likely to take home the big prize this weekend at the Academy Awards. The film focuses on a kid from the slums of India who takes the top prize on the country’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? In the history of quiz show games, no game has reached the heights of Millionaire. The game airs in various incarnations and languages in over 100 countries, making it the most successful, most watched game show ever (sorry, Bob Barker).

Now the title of the show has always been a no-brainer to me. I mean, who doesn’t? Nevertheless, this show insists on dangling that carrot in front of the public: the promise of gaining the good life in one fell swoop based solely on one’s grasp of trivia. If that ain’t the American dream, I don’t know what is. The carrot-dangling continues through the first few rounds of play with easy questions like, "Which animated rodent was first animated in 1910 by a guy whose name rhymes with bisney whose company has grown into a massive, international media empire?"

Then the questions get harder ("Which favorite lieutenant of General McLellan liked to chew Petes brand tobacco while stationed in Maryland during the third year of the American Civil War?"), and they can come from any source possible. They leave viewers shaking their heads and wishing they had a lifeline. Basically, these questions are calculated to significantly lower the odds that any of their contestants will reach the fabled prize.

So, what are the odds that any contestant will win the million-dollar prize? In the decade that Millionaire has been on the air in the U.S., only 11 people have won the million. Each episode features about 2 people with at least 20 episodes per season. That means there’s been an estimated total of 400 contestants in the show’s ten years. That also means the odds of winning in the U.S. are roughly 2.7 percent. Not bad.

You’d probably have better luck just going to med school or business school.

Tags: entertainment millionaire movies