Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? (partially lost episodes of British quiz show; 1998-present)
Current logo of UK version
Status: Partially Lost
Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? is a British game show that premiered on ITV on 4 September 1998 and was created by David Briggs, Steve Knight and Mike Whitehill. It's a simple question and answer show where the contestant has to answer 15 multiple choice questions correctly with increasing difficulty. To help the contestant through the questions is three lifelines, 50:50 is when two incorrect answers are taken out leaving the correct answer and one other wrong answer, Phone-A-Friend where the contestant calls someone they know over the phone (usually a family member or friend) and they have 30 seconds to discuss the question and possible answers and Ask The Audience where the studio audience is polled on the question and it's results would help the question in identifying the correct answer. A lot of the show's run has been transcribed and can be found online. However, some episodes of the show have gone missing over the years and have yet to resurface.
Missing Episodes
Series 9 Episode 29
Peter and Valiene Tungates run are among the most notable runs in the show's history, as while there have been many £0 winners in the UK version, the pair are the only pair contestants that missed question 5. For unknown reasons, their run has been edited from reruns of the show. As of July 2022, the run has been partially found.[1]
Series 10 Episode 1 (Coronation Street Special)
Three contestants (Sean Wilson, who won £32,000, David Neilson, who won £64,000 and Claire McGlinn, who won £16,000) appeared in this episode and whilst all of their prizes are known, no video or images have surfaced of their runs. It's also worth noting that while Sean Wilson's total winnings are known, the point at which he stopped playing the game is not, it is unknown how many questions he answered right.
Series 13 Episode 10
Series 13 Episode 10 is notable because it features 2 notable contestants: Dave Foster, the only contestant in the UK version whose winnings are not yet known and Robert Scott, who earned the highest amount of money that season (£250,000). While the first half of Dave Foster's run is available,[2] there is no video or images of Robert Scott's run.
Series 15 Episode 4
This episode is rather unusual, as this was the episode after the Valentines Day Special (aired on 14th February). However, the show did not bring back Pat Williams, whose run was interrupted by the klaxon (end of show) and was not brought back until 2 episodes later. This is odd for the show as this episode features regular contestants as opposed to celebrities, so it is unknown why Pat wasn't brought back until 2 episodes later. This episode has not been seen since its original airing and may not be seen again, likely to avoid confusion within the reruns.
Series 19 Episode 1
According to various sources such as gameshows.ru and the WWTBAM wiki, Don Abbott[3][4], a carryover contestant from the end of Series 18, continued his run on Series 19 Episode 2 (as opposed to Episode 1). However, nothing is known about Series 19 Episode 1, no other contestants from the episode have been identified.
See Also
- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 10th Anniversary Primetime Celebration (found episodes of ABC game show; 2009)
- Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (unaired American segments of game show; 1999)
- Tim Shields 2nd run on Who Wants to be a Millionaire (partially found American version of gameshow; 2000)
- Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? (partially found first season of Australian quiz show; 1999)