Millionaire Hot Seat
Synopsis
A nightly spin-off from Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Described by the producers as "a fast-paced, tactical twist on the classic format", each game of Millionaire Hot Seat is complete in a 30-minute episode.
The same studio as Millionaire, but lit a bit differently.
Six contestants compete in a queue around the Hot Seat. Only the contestant currently in the Hot Seat can answer questions on the money ladder.
- Correct answer - climb the ladder.
- Answer incorrectly - you're out, and the top prize is unattainable.
- Pass - you stay in the game, but return to the back of the queue.
- Passed questions must be answered by the next player correctly to stay, get it wrong and they're out.
- Only the top remaining prize can be won.
Between them, the contestants need to give correct answers to at least 10 of the 15 questions, including the last one, to win a big prize - otherwise whoever's in the Hot Seat for the final question wins a consolation £1000.
The winnable prizes are:
- £1,000,000 for 15 right answers
- £250,000 for 14 right
- £100,000
- £50,000
- £20,000
- £10,000 for 10 right
Although they can't be won, the show also offers nominal prizes for the other nine steps on the ladder: £7500, £5000, £3000, £2000, £1000, £500, £300, £200, £100.
Title music
Paul Farrer, who composed a full score based on Keith and Matthew Strachan's original work.
Trivia
This wasn't ITV's first spin-off from Millionaire - Fastest Finger First ran for a week in 2023.
The opening series went out on the ITV network at 7.30 on weeknights, a slot that became available after the soap operas Coronation Street and Emmerdale were simplified to run at 8pm every weeknight. The series premiered on Tuesday, with the following Tuesday dedicated to sportsball. Initially commissioned for 18 episodes, ITV very cheekily tried to pass off the final ten as series two, which they might have got away with had Jeremy not immediately described the show as new at the start of episode nine...
Hot Seat began in Norway and Italy, but is best known for its long run in Australia. Like here, the Aussie version went out after the national news, and ran almost permanently from 2009, until 2024.