American television game show
Million Dollar Password
|
---|
|
Genre
| Game show
|
---|
Created by
| Bob Stewart
|
---|
Written by
| Shawn Kennedy
|
---|
Directed by
| Mark Gentile
|
---|
Presented by
| Regis Philbin
|
---|
Theme music composer
| Lewis Flinn
|
---|
Composer
| Lewis Flinn
|
---|
Country of origin
| United States
|
---|
Original language
| English
|
---|
No.
of seasons
| 2
|
---|
No.
of episodes
| 12
|
---|
|
Executive producers
| Cecile Frot-Coutaz
Vin Rubino
|
---|
Producers
| Chris Ahearn
Graham Shaw
|
---|
Editor
| Eric Singer
|
---|
Camera setup
| Multi-camera
|
---|
Running time
| 41?43 minutes
|
---|
Production company
| Fremantle
|
---|
|
Network
| CBS
|
---|
Release
| June 1, 2008
(
2008-06-01
)
?
June 14, 2009
(
2009-06-14
)
|
---|
|
Password
Password Plus
Super Password
|
Million Dollar Password
is an updated version of the game show
Password
on
CBS
, which was hosted by
Regis Philbin
and ran from June 1, 2008, to June 14, 2009.
FremantleMedia
produced the program.
[1]
Production and broadcast history
[
edit
]
Million Dollar Password
premiered June 1, 2008, at 8:00 p.m.
Eastern
.
[2]
The initial order of the series consisted of six hour-long episodes, each comprising two games. These six episodes were taped in
New York City
's
Kaufman Astoria Studios
in March 2008.
[3]
Repeats of the first season aired on Thursdays beginning June 26, 2008, moved to Sundays on August 3, 2008 and finished on August 24, 2008.
[4]
Season two, another six episodes, began on December 18, 2008, with a special Thursday broadcast. The show moved to its regular Sunday time slot three nights later.
[4]
These games were taped on August 2?4, 2008, at CBS Radford studios in
Los Angeles
.
[5]
On January 7, 2009, despite good ratings, CBS removed the last two episodes (one featuring
Norm Macdonald
and
Jamie Kennedy
scheduled for January 11, 2009 and another with
Chelsea Handler
and
Jeff Garlin
scheduled for January 25, 2009), along with a Season 1 repeat scheduled for January 18, 2009, from its schedule. The program returned to the schedule on May 24, 2009.
[6]
Excluding June 7, 2009 for the broadcast of the
63rd Tony Awards
, the network ran a mixture of unseen episodes and repeats of Season 1 and 2 episodes on Sundays until the beginning of July.
[4]
The first four episodes, airing during the official
2008?09 television season
, had an average viewership that made the show finish as the 42nd most-viewed program of that season.
[7]
Betty White
became the first celebrity to play in all American television versions of
Password
with her appearance on the June 12, 2008, episode.
[8]
The widow of
Allen Ludden
, who was the host of the original Password in its various incarnations from 1961 to 1980, she also appeared on December 28, 2008, and was the only celebrity to appear more than once during the show's run.
[9]
Sande Stewart, the son of
Password
creator
Bob Stewart
, was a consultant for the show. Noted
cruciverbalist
Trip Payne
acted as the show's "word expert".
[10]
On August 3, 2009, during the 2009
Television Critics Association
Summer Press Tour, CBS Entertainment President
Nina Tassler
officially announced that there were no plans to renew the series; despite strong overall ratings, the show was most popular among a very old demographic that was not popular with advertisers.
[11]
GSN
originally aired repeats of the series on Sunday nights in mid-2010, later putting the show additionally on weeknights for a few weeks more, until removing the show from the schedule completely. It was then re-added in a Saturday afternoon slot in January 2011.
[12]
In June 2013, GSN removed the series from the schedule again.
In 2021, episodes of the series then aired on
Buzzr
.
The director of the show was Mark Gentile; he served as the director for the primetime version of
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
for its entire network run (between 1999 and 2002, which Philbin had also hosted) and was the consulting producer for the syndicated version's first two seasons before becoming the director of
Duel
(which aired between December 2007 and July 2008).
Gameplay
[
edit
]
This format of
Password
departs somewhat from its predecessors in terms of gameplay. The first half of the game is an elimination game featuring two contestants and two celebrity guests. The contestants alternate playing 30-second rounds in which they attempt to correctly identify as many as five given words with a celebrity partner using the traditional one-word clue method, like the
Lightning Round
. There is no limit on the number of clues for each word. Words can be passed on and returned to later if time permits.
The contestants are each paired with one of the celebrity partners for the first two rounds, and then switch partners for the next two rounds. The rounds alternate between the contestant giving and receiving clues, such that they give and receive once to each celebrity. After four rounds, the contestant who has correctly identified the most words moves on to the Million Dollar Password game. For the final round, the contestant who is trailing in score plays first. His opponent does not need to play the final round if they are still leading after that, and otherwise has their round cut short as soon as they have passed his opponent's score. If the contestants are tied after four rounds, a tie-breaking word is given to both teams, starting with the winner of a coin-toss. The teams alternate giving clues and responses until one contestant gets the word and wins the game.
[10]
Million Dollar Password
[
edit
]
Solved words to complete
|
Value if 5 words are solved
|
5 out of 10
|
$10,000
|
5 out of 9
|
$25,000
(guaranteed sum)
|
5 out of 8
|
$50,000
|
5 out of 7
|
$100,000
|
5 out of 6
|
$250,000
(guaranteed sum, season 2)
|
5 out of 5
|
$1,000,000
(jackpot prize)
|
|
The Million Dollar Password round had a six-step prize ladder with a top prize of $1,000,000.
[13]
The contestant's partner in this round was the celebrity with whom the contestant earned more points in the elimination game; if the contestant earned the same number with both celebrities, their partner is the last celebrity the contestant played with. The contestant may choose to give or receive the clues for the entire round. For each step of the ladder, the clue giver must get their partner to say five given passwords within 90 seconds. For each word, the clue giver may give a maximum of three clues (similar to
Cashword
from
Super Password
). The giver may pass, but cannot return to a word, like the original "
Lightning Round
" of the classic
Password
.
[10]
Successful contestants may take their winnings and leave, or may attempt the next prize level. At each subsequent level the gameplay remains the same, but the number of available passwords is reduced by one. Failure to complete a level ends the game. A contestant who fails on the first two levels earns nothing.
[10]
Failure on the $50,000, $100,000, or $250,000 levels means the contestant leaves with $25,000. Should a contestant clear the first five levels, s/he wins a guaranteed $250,000 and gets a free shot at the $1,000,000 top prize. (In season one, $250,000 was not a safety level.)
[10]
If a contestant giving the clues clears the $100,000 level, s/he is shown the six (the first five in season one) passwords for the $250,000 level (and in season one, the five passwords at the $1,000,000 level) before making a decision.
Legal clues
[
edit
]
Throughout the game, the giver must wait for a response before giving a new clue, and only one response may be given at a time. Breaking either rule forfeits the word. (The guesser may suggest the giver pass, but only the clue giver may officially do so.)
[10]
Antonyms
are acceptable clues, but hyphenated clues and acronyms are not. Using more than one word, a "coined", foreign or otherwise unrecognized clue will also forfeit the word.
[10]
As before, givers may use multiple words to form sentences and phrases, but must pause in (and wait for a response) between each word.
International versions
[
edit
]
France
[
edit
]
An adaptation of the
Million Dollar Password
format was aired from January 10, 2009 to July 30, 2016 on
France 2
, where it is called 'Mot de passe' (French for "password"
[14]
). The show is rebroadcast in Canada on
TV5
.
[15]
Indonesia
[
edit
]
A version of
Million Dollar Password
called
Password Jutawan
("Password Millionaire") aired originally on
Global TV
with
Muhammad Farhan
as host from 2008 to 2009.
Mexico
[
edit
]
A version called
Password: La palabra secreta
("Password: The secret word") produced by
TV Azteca
, airs Saturdays on
Azteca 13
.
[16]
Spain
[
edit
]
A version based on the
Million Dollar Password
format has been adapted for their audience. The program, entitled
Password
, premiered on July 7, 2008.
[17]
Hosted by Lujan Arguelles, it is nearly identical to the 2008 Philbin version. The biggest differences include the top prize of
€
25,000 and changing the program to a forty-five-minute (with commercials) weekday broadcast.
Country
|
Local name
|
Host
|
Network
|
Prize
|
Premiere
|
Brazil
|
Mega Senha
[18]
|
Luciana Gimenez (left in February 2011)
[19]
and Marcelo de Carvalho
Marcelo de Carvalho
|
RedeTV!
|
R$
1,000,000
|
April 29, 2010 ? 2011
September 15, 2018 ? present
|
France
|
Mot de passe
[20]
|
Patrick Sabatier
Laurence Boccolini
|
France 2
|
€
100,000
€
50,000
€
20,000
|
January 10, 2009 ? July 30, 2016
August 31, 2020 ? June 25, 2021
|
Greece
|
Password
[21]
|
Giorgos Tsalikis
|
Alpha TV
|
€100,000
|
2008
|
Indonesia
|
Password Jutawan
[22]
|
Muhammad Farhan
|
Global TV
|
Rp.
200,000,000
|
August 23, 2008 ? March 21, 2009
|
Mexico
|
Password: La palabra secreta
[23]
|
Rodrigo Murray (2010?2011)
Rafael Araneda (2013)
|
TV Azteca
|
MX$
250,000
|
May 8, 2010 ? 2011
2013
|
Slovakia
|
Heslo za milion
[24]
|
T?ma Filip
|
Markiza
|
Sk
10,000,000
|
2008
|
Spain
|
Password
[25]
|
Lujan Arguelles
(2008?2010)
Ana Milan
(2010)
|
Cuatro
|
€
25,000 (season one)
€30,000 + accumulating jackpot (season two)
|
July 7, 2008 ? June 10, 2010
|
Turkey
|
Kelimenin Gucu
[26]
|
Kenan I?ık
|
aTV
|
500,000
TL
|
May 17, 2010 ? 2011
|
Licensed merchandise
[
edit
]
Endless Games began distributing a home box version of
Million Dollar Password
in November 2008
[27]
and a second edition was released in June 2010.
[28]
iToys
distributed a handheld electronic version of the program in 2008.
[29]
In November 2008,
RealArcade
published an
iPhone OS
game based on the show entitled
Million Dollar Password 2009 Edition
. In December 2008, the game was released on some
mobile phone
platforms and, in March 2009, RealArcade released a version of the game for
PCs
and
Macs
.
[30]
Million Dollar Password 2009 Edition
was released on
CD-ROM
in July 2009, distributed by
Encore USA
.
[31]
Andrews McMeel
published a 2010 day-to-day
calendar
based upon the program in July 2009.
[32]
Ratings
[
edit
]
U.S. standard ratings
[
edit
]
In the following summary, "
rating
" is the percentage of all households with televisions that tuned to the show, and "
share
" is the percentage of all televisions in use at that time that are tuned in. "18?49" is the percentage of all adults aged 18?49 tuned into the show. "Viewers" is the number of viewers, in millions, watching at the time. "Rank" is how well the show did compared to other TV shows aired that week.
Season 1 (2008)
[
edit
]
#
|
Airdate
|
Celebrities
|
Rating
[33]
|
Share
[33]
|
18?49
[33]
|
Viewers
(millions)
[33]
|
Weekly rank
[34]
|
1
|
Sunday, June 1, 2008
|
Neil Patrick Harris
,
Rachael Ray
|
6.8
|
12
|
2.2/7
|
10.69
|
#3
|
2
|
Sunday, June 8, 2008
|
Tony Hawk
,
Rosie O'Donnell
|
6.3
|
11
|
2.1/6
|
9.64
|
#5
|
3
|
Thursday, June 12, 2008
|
Susie Essman
,
Betty White
|
6.4
|
12
|
2.0/7
|
9.52
|
#7
|
4
|
Sunday, June 22, 2008
|
Shanna Moakler
,
Steven Weber
|
5.5
|
10
|
1.5/5
|
8.29
|
#12
|
5
|
Sunday, June 29, 2008
|
Sara Evans
,
Steve Schirripa
|
5.6
|
10
|
1.7/5
|
8.55
|
#7
|
6
|
Sunday, July 6, 2008
|
Monique Coleman
,
Damien Fahey
|
5.0
|
9
|
1.3/5
|
7.53
|
#3
|
Season 2 (2008?2009)
[
edit
]
#
|
Airdate
|
Celebrities
|
Rating
[33]
|
Share
[33]
|
18?49
[33]
|
Viewers
(millions)
[33]
|
Weekly rank
[34]
|
7
|
Thursday, December 18, 2008
|
William Shatner
,
Aisha Tyler
|
5.3
|
9
|
1.6/5
|
8.27
|
#24
|
8
|
Sunday, December 21, 2008
|
Julie Chen
,
Phil Keoghan
|
6.0
|
10
|
1.8/5
|
9.52
|
#19
|
9
|
Sunday, December 28, 2008
|
Adam Carolla
,
Betty White
|
6.3
|
10
|
2.0/5
|
9.84
|
#7
|
10
|
Sunday, January 4, 2009
|
Craig Ferguson
,
Serena Williams
|
6.8
|
10
|
1.9/5
|
10.43
|
#14
|
11
|
Sunday, May 31, 2009
|
Jamie Kennedy
,
Norm Macdonald
|
4.5
|
8
|
1.2/4
|
6.88
|
#20
|
12
|
Sunday, June 14, 2009
|
Jeff Garlin
,
Chelsea Handler
|
4.4
|
8
|
1.0/3
|
6.69
|
#22
|
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Adalian, Joseph (October 10, 2007).
"
'Password' is…Regis"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
November 4,
2018
.
- ^
"CBS Unveils its 2008 Summer Schedule"
. The Futon Critic. April 14, 2008
. Retrieved
January 8,
2009
.
- ^
"Million Dollar Password Taping"
. NYC Linkup. January 7, 2009. Archived from
the original
on January 4, 2009
. Retrieved
January 8,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Million Dollar Password Listings"
. The Futon Critic
. Retrieved
May 4,
2009
.
- ^
Grosvenor, Carrie (August 1, 2008).
"Million Dollar Password Taping this Weekend, Some Celebs Revealed"
. About.com: Game Shows. Archived from
the original
on July 7, 2011
. Retrieved
January 8,
2009
.
- ^
"Million-Dollar Password Returns to CBS on Sunday, May 24, 2009"
. CBS. April 30, 2009
. Retrieved
April 30,
2009
.
- ^
"Season Program Rankings from 09/22/08 through 05/17/09"
.
ABC
Medianet. May 19, 2009. Archived from
the original
on May 21, 2009
. Retrieved
December 3,
2010
.
- ^
Kimball, Trevor (June 3, 2008).
"
Million Dollar Password
: A Big Enough Winner for CBS?"
.
TVSeriesFinale.com
. Retrieved
July 2,
2017
.
- ^
"Betty White's Password"
. Hartford Courant. December 28, 2008. Archived from
the original
on July 7, 2012
. Retrieved
January 14,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
"Preview of "Million-Dollar Password"
"
. BuzzerBlog. March 10, 2008. Archived from
the original
on March 11, 2008
. Retrieved
January 8,
2009
.
- ^
Brian Ford Sullivan (August 3, 2009).
"CBS at TCA: Tassler Touts Successes, Challenges"
. The Futon Critic
. Retrieved
August 9,
2009
.
- ^
Alex Davis (March 19, 2010).
"GSN Picks Up "Million Dollar Password", Adds Classic "Card Sharks"
"
. BuzzerBlog. Archived from
the original
on March 25, 2010
. Retrieved
March 20,
2010
.
- ^
"Regis To Host "Million Dollar Password"
"
. CBS News. October 12, 2007
. Retrieved
January 8,
2009
.
- ^
"Mot de passe"
.
Collins Dictionary
.
- ^
"Mot de passe - television TV5 Quebec Canada"
. Archived from
the original
on July 24, 2010
. Retrieved
August 16,
2010
.
- ^
"Password, la palabra secreta"
. TV Azteca. Archived from
the original
on May 6, 2010
. Retrieved
June 1,
2010
.
- ^
"Cuatro estrena el lunes su nuevo concurso, Password"
. Ojotele. July 5, 2008
. Retrieved
January 9,
2009
.
- ^
"Mega Senha"
. RedeTV!
. Retrieved
May 9,
2010
.
- ^
"Luciana Gimenez revela porque deixou de comandar o "Mega Senha" ao lado do marido"
. TV Foco. March 18, 2015
. Retrieved
January 13,
2016
.
- ^
"Mot de Passe: Regles du jeu"
. France 2. Archived from
the original
on January 19, 2009
. Retrieved
January 11,
2009
.
- ^
"Password"
. studioata. Archived from
the original
on December 23, 2010
. Retrieved
July 10,
2011
.
- ^
"Password Jutawan"
. Password Jutawan. Archived from
the original
on January 22, 2009
. Retrieved
January 12,
2009
.
- ^
"Password"
. TV Azteca. Archived from
the original
on May 6, 2010
. Retrieved
June 13,
2010
.
- ^
"Password"
. TV Markiza. Archived from
the original
on August 9, 2011
. Retrieved
June 13,
2010
.
- ^
"Password"
. Cuatro. Archived from
the original
on January 24, 2009
. Retrieved
January 7,
2009
.
- ^
"Kelimenin Gucu"
. Kelimenin Gucu. Archived from
the original
on March 2, 2012
. Retrieved
December 10,
2010
.
- ^
"Million Dollar Password Board Game Hits Shelves For Holidays"
(PDF)
. Endless Games. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on July 10, 2011
. Retrieved
April 20,
2009
.
- ^
"Million Dollar Password 2010"
. Boardgames4u
. Retrieved
March 20,
2010
.
- ^
"The Price is Right and More Go Electronic with IToys"
. License!. October 10, 2008. Archived from
the original
on July 24, 2011
. Retrieved
January 8,
2009
.
- ^
"RealArcade Announces FremantleMedia's "Million Dollar Password 2009 Edition" on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch"
. Marketwire. November 19, 2008
. Retrieved
January 8,
2009
.
- ^
"NDS: New Releases ? Million Dollar Password"
. Navarre Corporation. Archived from
the original
on July 14, 2011
. Retrieved
June 29,
2009
.
- ^
"Million Dollar Password: 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar"
. Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC. Archived from
the original
on June 9, 2011
. Retrieved
April 23,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Unless otherwise cited, the overnight rating, share, 18-49, and viewing information come from
TV by the Numbers
.
Seidman, Robert.
"Nielsen Overnight TV Show Ratings"
.
TV by the Numbers
. Archived from
the original
on January 1, 2009
. Retrieved
January 7,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
Unless otherwise cited, the weekly ranks come from
TV by the Numbers
.
Seidman, Robert.
"Nielsen Weekly Top Broadcast TV Show Ratings"
.
TV by the Numbers
. Archived from
the original
on February 6, 2009
. Retrieved
January 7,
2009
.
External links
[
edit
]