Кто хочет стать миллионером? is broadcast from February 19, 2001, to today. It is shown on the Russian TV stationChannel One on Saturdays at 4:55 PM. The show is set in an original format.
Broadcast history
The Russian version of the series premiered on October 1, 1999, on NTV. Initially, the program was called, "O, schastlivchik!" ("Oh, Lucky Man!"), presented by Dmitry Dibrov. The game combines the simplicity of the rules to provide an opportunity to win the top prize of 1 million rubles. The series gained enormous popularity among Russian audiences, and in 2000, was awarded a Taffy award for Best Entertainment Program.[1]
On February 19, 2001, the program moved to channel ORT (Channel One) and was renamed to its current title to reflect the name of the franchise. Dibrov departed the show, and was succeeded by comedian Maxim Galkin. On September 17, 2005, the money tree was revised, with the top prize now worth 3 million rubles.[2]
On December 21, 2008, Dibrov returned to hosting the show once more and presented the show until June 18, 2022.[2]
Production of the program was suspended in 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the show returned with Yulianna Karaulova as the host replacing Dibrov. The original format's distributor is not involved in the production.[3]
Payout structure
Question number
Question value (in Russian Rubles) (Yellow zones are the guaranteed levels)[4]
1 October 1999 (1999-10-01) – 28 January 2001 (2001-01-28)
It was broadcast from October 1, 1999, to January 27, 2001. It was shown on the Russian TV stationNTV. In 2001, the show was superseded by a second adoption named Кто хочет стать миллионером? and aired on public Russian broadcaster Channel One.[1] For a while TNT broadcast reruns of О, счастливчик! episodes.
At the end of the first season held a special issue devoted to the eighth birthday of the tax police in Moscow, which was attended by employees of departments.
A few months before the New Year 2001, the production team conducted a poll among the audience, whom they would like to see in New Year's special edition of the game. The poll has been won for Russia's on-going President Vladimir Putin, but for obvious reasons, he refused to participate, but he sent a letter. The New Year's special was attended by prominent journalists, politicians and artists: Svetlana Sorokina, Sergey Shoigu, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Detsl, etc. When Svetlana Sorokina ended her game, she offered the host, Dmitriy Dibrov, to switch places, and he failed to answer the eleventh question correctly and won 32,000 rubles.