Kto khochet stat' millionerom?

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Кто хочет стать миллионером?
Titles of Кто хочет стать миллионером?
Directed by	Konstantin Ivanov and Tatyana Dmitrakova (1999—2008), Maxim Utkin (2008-)
Presented by	Maxim Galkin (2001–2008) (2008–present)
Composers	Keith Strachan Matthew Strachan
Country of origin	Russia
Production
Producers	Sergey Kordo (1999—2008), Ilya Krivitsky (2008-)
Production location	Ostankino
Camera setup	multi-camera
Running time	50 minutes (70 minutes with commercials)
Production companies	(1999—2008), Krasny Kvadrat (2008-)
Release
Original network	NTV (1999—2001, 2001-2002, re-runs), TNT (re-runs, 2002-2003), Channel One (2001-)
Picture format	4:3 (October 1, 1999-May 28, 2011), 14:9/16:9 (June 4, 2011-) Age of 12 or above
Audio format	stereo
Original release	19 February 2001 (2001-02-19) – present
External links
Website

Кто хочет стать миллионером? (English translation: Who wants to become a millionaire?, transliteration: Kto khochet stat' millionerom?) is a Russian game show based on the original British format of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The show is hosted by (earlier by Maxim Galkin). The main goal of the game is to win 3 million Russian roubles (originally 1 million Russian roubles) by answering 15 multiple-choice questions correctly. There are four lifelines - Fifty Fifty (50 на 50, 50 na 50), Phone A Friend (звонок другу, zvonok drugu), Ask The Audience (помощь зала, pomoshch zala) and Double Dip (право на ошибку, pravo na oshibku). For some time there also was a fifth lifeline, Three Wise Men (три мудреца, tri mudretsa, help from free «wise» people). Кто хочет стать миллионером? is broadcast from February 19, 2001 to today. It is shown by on the Russian TV station Channel One on Saturdays at 6:45 PM. After getting the fifth question correct, a contestant will leave with at least 5,000 RUB. After getting the tenth question correct, he will leave with at least 100,000 RUB. An earlier version of the show was called O, schastlivchik!.^[1]

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

On December 21, 2008 Dibrov returned to hosting the show once more.^[3]

Payout structure[]

Old game's version[]

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Earlier, the game was called О, счастливчик! (O Lucky Man!) and it was shown on NTV.

О, счастливчик!
Logo of О, счастливчик!
Created by	Ways PRO
Presented by
Country of origin	Russia
Production
Running time	39 minutes
Release
Original network	NTV, TNT
Original release	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 station NTV. In 2001, the show was superseded by a second adoption named Кто хочет стать миллионером? and aired on public Russian broadcaster Channel One.^[2] For a while TNT broadcast reruns of О, счастливчик! episodes.

Special Events[]

• The first game was shown a special project for a few days before the new year 2000. The game was attended by leading NTV journalists and Leonid Parfyonov, , Vladimir Kara-Murza, Victor Shenderovich, , Yevgeny Kiselyov, Alexander Belyayev and others. In the same game was born the concept of «zone of Shenderovich» - questions after the sixth and the «zone of the Kara-Murza» - after the tenth question.
• A month before the 2000 presidential election in a game attended by the four presidential candidates: Stanislav Govorukhin, Ella Pamfilova, Yevgeny Savostyanov and Umar Dzhabrailov.
• 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 New Year 2000 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 by Russia's 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 eleventh question correctly and won 32,000 rubles.

Notable contestants[]

Top Prize Winners[]

• Igor Sazeev (Игорь Сазеев) from Saint Petersburg. (12 March 2001)^[4]
• Irina Chudinovskikh and Yuriy Chudinovskikh (Ирина Чудиновских и Юрий Чудиновских) from Kirov. (January 18, 2003)^[5]
• Svetlana Yaroslavtseva (Светлана Ярославцева) from Troitsk. (February 19, 2006)^[6]
• Timur Budayev (Тимур Будаев) from Pyatigorsk. (April 17, 2010)^[7]
• Bari Alibasov and Alexander «Danko» Fadeev (Бари Алибасов и Александр «Данко» Фадеев). (November 23, 2013)
• Yulianna Karaulova and Timur Solovyov (Юлианна Караулова и Тимур Соловьев). (December 2, 2017)

Top Prize Losers[]

• Galina Semyonova (Галина Семёнова) lost 468,000 roubles on January 22, 2005^[8]
• Vladimir Yefremov (Владимир Ефремов) lost 700,000 roubles on April 30, 2011^[8]
• Dušan Perović and Yekaterina Andreyeva (Душан Перович и Екатерина Андреева) lost 1,100,000 roubles on April 1, 2017
• Viktor Verzhbitskiy and Andrey Burkovskiy (Виктор Вержбицкий и Андрей Бурковский) lost 1,300,000 roubles on May 27, 2017
• Viktor Vasilyev and Gavriil Gordeyev (Виктор Васильев и Гавриил Гордеев) lost 1,100,000 roubles on November 11, 2017
• Keti Topuria and Vladimir Miklosich (Кэти Топурия и Владимир Миклошич) lost 1,300,000 roubles on February 17, 2018
• Alexander Druz and Viktor Sidnev (Александр Друзь и Виктор Сиднев) lost 1,300,000 roubles on December 22, 2018 (Alexander Druz was accused of cheating game and collusion with Ilya Ber, the chief editor of the show. They were later stripped of their 200,000 rouble winnings.)

Top Prize Walkers[]

• Sergey Strokin (Сергей Строкин) from Moscow - June 10, 2000
• Gennadiy Sostrovchuk - November 24, 2001
• Konstantin Fedchenko - December 10, 2001
• Olga Krayushkina - November 4, 2002
• Leonid Agutin and Anzhelika Varum - January 8, 2005
• Valentin Smirnitskiy (Валентин Смирни́тский) - March 6, 2005
• Sergey Bobris (Сергей Бобрис) from Belgorod. (February 5, 2011)
• Aleksandr Kuzin (Александр Кузин) from Oryol. (March 24, 2012)
• Leonid Panyukov (Леонид Панюков) from Kostroma. (September 29, 2012)
• Mikhail Boyarsky and Valentin Smirnitsky (Михаил Боярский и Валентин Смирни́тский). (May 16, 2015)
• and (Дана Борисова и Александр Гудков). (June 24, 2018)
• Anna Kamenkova and (Анна Каменкова и Юрий Гримов). (August 18, 2018)

References[]

External links[]

• Official website of the new version
• Behind the scenes of Russian Millionaire^{[permanent dead link]}