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Post by ladykelsey on Jun 24, 2014 2:15:36 GMT -5
At the time Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was a hit show CBS launched the sister show of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire called Winning Lines and featured contestants trying to win a million dollar prize when the winning player went to the bonus round called The Wonderwall and if they got all the answers correct on The Wonderwall they became a winner. It's a shame Winning Lines was short-lived because CBS would've had a winner on their hands and a big ratings hit, Do you remember Winning Lines?, Kelsey
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Post by thekid965 on Jun 24, 2014 7:18:06 GMT -5
The main problem with Winning Lines was the fact it was an attempt to turn what was, in effect, a lottery game show into something that could compete with Millionaire for American audiences -- something it was never intended to do. It would be as if someone tried to make a full-fledged game show out of something like The Big Spin or Cash Explosion Double Play.
In its original British form, Winning Lines was a vehicle for Britain's National Lottery; this would explain the otherwise-inexplicable presence of 49 contestants (why not 50?), as there were 49 numbers in the National Lottery draw, and the first round was thus intended to simulate the draw process by selecting six out of the 49 to play. (This is also where the title comes from; in the National Lottery, the six numbers that are drawn are called the "winning line.") The format was the same as the one we saw in the States, right down to the home-viewer game, with the following exceptions:
* In the first round, all questions could be answered by one of the numbers 1-49 (i.e., no math/estimation questions as we saw in our version). If you thought your number was the answer, you buzzed in; if you were right, you advanced, but if not, you were eliminated from further play.
* The second round played just like ours, no significant changes.
* The WonderWall bonus was functionally identical to the US version, except it was originally played for a trip rather than cash. The more answers you got correct in the three minutes, the better (that is to say, the further from the studio) your destination. The grand prize was an around-the-world trip, won for getting all twenty answers in time.
The regular National Lottery draw also aired during the show, which partially explains why the actual game content of Winning Lines is relatively short and needed such heavy padding for the US version.
In short, Winning Lines was probably nothing more than a quick cash-in attempt by CBS to ride the coattails of the million-dollar craze in late '99/early '00. Like as not they figured the combination of Dick Clark, Celador Productions ("From the creators of Millionaire!"), a seven-figure grand prize, and the sheer spectacle of forty-nine contestants all on stage at once would be enough to grab eyeballs. It wasn't. The show only lasted six episodes, and IIRC there was a "spot of bother" (as the Brits might say) when the biggest winner didn't get her prize money for a long time -- I'm not sure she ever did, though I seem to remember they eventually did so. (Anyone in the hivemind want to refresh my memory on that point?)
It was a nice idea, and the WonderWall is one of the all-time great bonus rounds IMO, but the show itself was a bit too lightweight and quirky to have that much staying power for US audiences. Not helping matters at all was a Saturday-night time slot, quite possibly the worst TV night in America. (Meanwhile, the original UK version -- with the National Lottery tie-in -- stuck around until 2004. Go figure.)
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Post by ladykelsey on Jun 24, 2014 18:16:03 GMT -5
!!! Wow !!! what an interesting fact about Winning Lines to know. I think you're the smartest person ever on GSP when it comes to finding facts about game shows Thekid965. Thank you very much for the facts on Winning Lines you're a good buddy, Kelsey
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Post by carpetcrawler on Jun 25, 2014 18:34:20 GMT -5
It's a shame Winning Lines was short-lived because CBS would've had a winner on their hands and a big ratings hit, The reason Winning Lines was so short-lived was because it wasn't a big ratings hit nor a winner for CBS.
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Post by Frank on Jun 29, 2014 23:41:29 GMT -5
Winning Lines perhaps had the easiest run to $1,000,000 of all the $1,000,000 gameshows, IMO
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