A 15th question is something you rarely see in Russian “Millionaire”. Only 4 right answers were given to a question of this level. The last time we’ve seen the last question was in the beginning of 2011, but the contestant didn’t risk it and went away with 1.5 million Rubles.
Vladimir Efremov from Perm was in the hot seat this Saturday. He was feeling confident so played the “risk” version of the game and chose the 13th level, 800,000 Rubles, as his safe level. It wasn’t an easy job for him to reach the final level, but long logical thoughts helped him to pick a right answer every time. After gaining 1.5 million, he saw his last question: “What vegetable does the Fruili-Venezia Giuila province in Italy dedicate a festival to every three months?” (onion, beans, asparagus or artichoke). Unfortunately, the answer chosen by Vladimir — artichoke — was not a correct one. It seems as though if the safe level was set lower, Vladimir wouldn’t have risked answering the question. He does win 800,000 Rubles though, so well done to him!
Throughout the history of the show, only one person before Vladimir got the last question wrong. He lost 700,000 Rubles, whilst the first contestant, who gave her wrong answer in 2004, lost 468,000 Rubles (back then the sums were those of the classic Millionaire money tree).
Viktor Loginov, who has hosted the Russian version of Identity since its beginning in 2007, became a contestant on the Ukrainian
counterpart of the show which aired on 31st December. From its second season Andrey Domanskiy (host of Ukranian «Identity» began to be visited by Russian contestants quite often (for instance, by actors of Russian series airing on «Novy Kanal», the network airing «Identity»), and Mr Loginov was another addition to that company on the New Year’s Eve.
Before Ukraine launched its own version of the format, «Novy Kanal» aired Russian episodes of «Identity» (called «Intuitsiya» or «Intuition») – and still does that every day except Fridays, when the Ukranian version airs; so Mr. Loginov is, of course, popular with the viewers. Besides his career as a TV host, he is the main actor in a highly popular sitcom «Happy Together» (Russian adaptation of “Married… With Children”) which also airs in Ukraine.
The episode turned out to be fantastic. Viktor didn’t managed to win anything, but he played very well. Besides, as a host of a similar show, his categories were extremely tough and all contestants looked very alike. Next week Andrey Domanskiy and Viktor Loginov will switch places and Andrey will play as contestant – that will be the last episode of Ukranian «Identity», as Andrey is moving to «1+1» channel to host the «Show for Two Million», based off the Money Drop format.
Dear readers! It’s Christmas time, and we all like to be nice. Our gift for you is an offer of a very special little online game. It’s “The Million Pound Drop”, albeit without the million, without pounds and without Davina. Some lucky contestants will get a chance to walk away with a nice Christmas gift of $40, others can watch and play along. The game will be done through an IRC-chat, with graphics and sounds, so it’ll look really nice. If you’ve ever wanted to face The Drop – why not come along and play? We have no restrictions on age etc., you just need to be able to communicate in English.
We’ve done these games for some time now but it’s our first international try. If you’re interested in playing or just watching the game, please chat to us on Skype: kser-dima, and we’ll be happy to write you in. The show is likely to be on 29th December at 19:00 GMT to allow players from USA, Europe and, of course, the Russian hosts to participate easily. Thanks for your interest!
“Millionaire” began its run of festive shows. Understandably, it will be filled by celebrities – TV personalities, singers, dancers and comedians. In the last show, Dmitry Brekotkin and Dmitry Sokolov, who came to a studio full with another Dmitry – Dibrov, chose the already common “risk” version of the game, but surprised everyone by choosing 1,500,000 Roubles as their safe level sum! That’s question 14, last before the grand prize of 3 million.
Watch the video below to see how it turns out for them.
It’s been a few months now that “Millionaire” introduced its new rules. Dmitry Dibrov informed the contestants about all of them, yet few use them all. Not long ago viewers saw how to answer the question 100% correct: take the 50:50 lifeline and then “double dip”. Now, we here at Quizzies think that it’s a serious flaw in the rules – it limits the contestant quite a lot (since you can’t bail or take another lifeline after you’ve activated the “double dip”; and besides, the original version of the game required a contestant to give an answer even if they’re unsure (unless they bail), so it’s a bit of a giveaway.
On a different note, a contestant has recently used a rule that allows her to let one of the audience members phone their friend and give an answer. Check out the video below.
To be fair, this was already seen in one of the special shows – the contestant, a popular comedian and TV figure Ivan Urgant (host of Pyramid on RTR channel in 2004-5) called his friend, a prominent journalist Leonid Parfenov. Perhaps the producers got an idea for this rule after the above has happened, but we digress. It’s a cool little addition that puts a little more interactivity into “Millionaire’s” gameplay.
There is a new show taping very soon, called “Night at the Museum”, a version of a British game show “Codex”. The show will air on the educational “Russia-Culture” channel.
Not much is known about the programme so far – the only details so far are the host’s name – Andrey Maksimov, and the grand prize – which is a trip to any of the world’s museums. The filming does actually take place during the night.
The British version is shown on Channel 4 from 12 November 2006 until December 2007. Every episode has its own distinctive topic. It is filmed in the British Museum. 5 players compete for £3,000 in the game which is hosted by Tony Robinson.
“Channel One” aired a concert yesterday, which was devoted to the 20-year jubilee of “Field of Wonders”, the Russian version of “Wheel of Fortune”. It was hosted by Leonid Yakubovitch (the usual host of this show) and his daughter Varvara.
The concert took place in the most famous Moscow circus, and involved not only stars of show business, but many circus acts too. Some earlier contestants were invited to the concert – for example, mums with young kids who took part in a special show 2 years ago when they were pregnant.
Many of the show’s features were incorporated into the concert – like the fact that contestants arrive on the show with presents and the host often changes clothes to what some contestants bring him during the game. At the end of the show a car was given as a present to a lucky winner out of the 1,900 spectators.
In the beginning of this season of “Millionaire”, it’s become a rule that contestants face a choice of playing a “classic game” of 15 questions, 3 lifelines and 2 milestones; or they could now choose the “risk version” with 4 lifelines but only 1 milestone (the contestant chooses where he wants the milestone to be). In the risk version, there is a popular “Double Dip” lifeline which guarantees a correct answer if used with a 50:50.
It looks very easy and fair – the contestant can judge his chances and then select the money level where he thinks he can get to easily. Usually, those who choose the new version of game play (about 80% of players, according to the host) make a sum of 50,000 to 400,000 roubles their “safe haven”. And because in Russian “Millionaire” ordinary contestants swap places with celebrities every show, the stars tend to take a bigger risk.
Yesterday’s game showed just how cruel the new game play can be. This time, all of the contestants have been on the show previously. The first pair – figure skater Tatiana Navka and singer Alexey Vorobiev chose 200,000 roubles as their milestone, and so did the second player – singer Alexander Marshal. Unfortunately, everyone left the studio empty-handed. It was the first Russian “Millionaire” in which none of the players earned money.
Today’s «Ten Million Show» has given us the first record of the show, as a pair walked away with 1 million roubles! The largest prize money won on the show before that was 250,000 roubles, which was taken home by 3 pairs (which, coincidentally, is the smallest possible prize money on the show).
Mother and daughter Lyudmila and Oxana Lazeeva were the lucky pair. Oxana already has some game show experience: in October 2008 she was a contestant on «1 vs 100», and this April has played against Maxim Galkin in his show, where she won 20,000 roubles.
Oxana said in an interview afterwards that she did not expect to win this big – in contrast, her mother said that she expected to win a lot more! We would like to congratulate the lucky winners and wish them the best of luck in any future games and in life!
On the 25th October, «Field of Wonders» (Russian version of «Wheel of Fortune»), arguably the most down-to-earth game show on
Russian television, turns 20 years old. This game started during the times of the Soviet Union, when the people weren’t used to these kind of programmes. The prizes were accordingly little – for example, a pair of jeans, a Walkman player or a dish set, although a lucky contestant could win a car in the bonus game. To celebrate this milestone, two special editions of the show have been recorded in an actual circus!
Today, this is a colourful and exciting game show, which is hosted by a very liked Leonid Yakubovitch (Vlad Listyev until November 1991). Contestants arrive from all corners of Russia and the CIS. Over the years, it’s become a tradition to present a gift to the host upon arrival on the show – which led to a creation to the «Field of Wonders Museum», located in the central pavillion of the Moscow Exhibition Center. Some of the exhibits include photos of the host in various dresses that the contestants present him with, portraits and caricatures of Leonid, and even the original «prize box», in use since 1990. The museum was created in 2001 and is still growing. The show is immensely popular in Russia (particularly outside the Moscow region), so the contestants may need to wait a few years to be on the show. The record was an application for a contestant who got on the show 19 years after it was sent!
The Quizzies team wishes the show every success in the future.
