The 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' subculture gains a foothold at Princeton

Despite the academic demands of a new semester, throngs of University students gathered in dorm rooms Tuesday night to continue what has become for many a ritualistic viewing of ABC's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."

Students watched from the edges of their seats as a nervous contestant increased her monetary winnings by correctly answering a series of trivia questions, speculating about the correct answers among themselves.

" 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' is the best show among all of the new game shows created," said Forrest Collman '03, whose Butler College RA group gathers at least twice weekly to watch the show.

Early last year, ABC purchased the rights to the popular British quiz show. Now hosted by Regis Philbin before a live audience in New York, the series airs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday nights.

Big bucks

The show features 10 contestants competing for a turn in the "hot seat," where the winner then faces up to 15 trivia questions. Each question is worth an increasing amount of prize money, eventually totalling one million dollars. If the contestant answers incorrectly, he or she loses a portion of the money earned and is eliminated from the game.

In addition to attracting University student viewers, the game show has appealed to a wide audience across the nation. Philbin's program has become ABC's most-watched new series in six years, drawing more than 24.2 million viewers on average, according to the network's Website. It has far surpassed other contemporary game shows like "Greed" and "Winning Lines."

Collman attributed some of the show's success to its host. "Regis is clearly much less annoying and more spontaneous and likeable than Chuck from 'Greed,' " he said. "I don't mean to trash all those Dick Clark fans. I give him respect for coming up with game show ideas, but he looks terrible on 'Winning Lines.' "

Kate Gammon '03, who was given tickets to be part of the studio audience for "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" after writing to tell ABC that her whole hall gathers to watch the show together, offered another explanation for the show's popularity. "The appeal to me is the suspenseful music, the weird camera angles and the futuristic set," she said.

Students also said they enjoyed the content of the show.

" 'Millionaire' is more objective than other game shows," Collman said. " 'Greed' is comprised mostly of surveys and pop culture questions after a certain point, and 'Winning Lines' has only numbers for answers."

"My favorite thing about 'Millionaire' is that the first couple of questions are tailored to younger kids. They're supposed to be easier. As a result, whole families can watch it together," said Joe Tursi '03.

Some student viewers said they enjoy competing with "Millionaire" contestants. "The appeal to me is to see how I compare to the contestants and to match wits with them," Ben Oshrine '03 said.

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Jenna Mariano '02 noted the likability of the contestants as a factor in drawing audiences for the show. "My roommate and I were saying how weird it is that we're normally selfish about wanting money, but we got so excited about someone else winning money that we were jumping up and down," she said.

Collman added that, beyond its educational aspects, the show also serves as a procrastination tool. "You can learn something from it," he said. "That is an interesting mental ploy to trick yourself into putting off your homework — one I've used."