Today, I want to share a story from over twenty years ago. Back then, there was a TV show called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? that aired in a lot of countries worldwide. In Japan, it was called Quiz $ Millionaire and aired on Fuji Television. I used to watch the show sometimes and at one point, casually applied to appear as a contestant through an Interactive Voice Response system. They had no web forms yet, as I recall.
I almost forgot about applying until I received a postcard inviting me to Fuji Television. They said they would pay to get me there. I'm a curious person, so I went there on the day they scheduled. There were numerous other would-be contestants and we were led into a large room where they had us take a written test. The test was easy, and naturally I got a postcard for the next round.
After that, I started to watch the show and analyze it in earnest every week. In the Japanese version, the top prize was 10M JPY, which was approximately $90K American at the exchange rate back then. So it was too little to call Millionaire, but of course a mint for me — especially at that time; I had just divorced and was new to being a single mom.
The quiz questions weren't that difficult, so viewers could easily relate to the contestants. The host, Minomonta, dragged out the suspense unnecessarily by staring down the contestant intently before giving the correct answer, which seemed to make the viewers' hearts race. Minomonta often came off as arrogant, and I didn't care for him. However, I thought the level of difficulty of the questions was easy enough even for me, a total quiz amateur, to aspire to the top prize.
I'm looking forward to part 2. Of course we had Who Wants to be a Millionaire? in the UK. Our host, Chris Tarant, also stared down the contestants (by the way, contestant is more common than challenger) and it got on my nerves. Obviously the answer is B, why do we have to wait so much?
Naturally, we had it in the US too, and yes, the long, suspenseful pauses are extremely irritating! But I understand that they have to stretch out the show, so that it fills the time slot. And I loved playing along. Have you seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire?
Wow! I'm looking forward to part 2!
@schmamie When I see Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the UK in the same sentence, I just can't help but think of Charles Ingram's story. You know, it's moments like this that makes me glad I speak English 😆. The British Scandal podcast has taught me so much about the UK 😅.
Thank you, everyone! I caught a cold yesterday and spent the whole day in bed today. I tried to apply your corrections on my iPhone, but I couldn’t. Hopefully, I’ll be able to revise my post and reply to your comments tomorrow!
@schmamie Thank you, Amie! Contestant was a new word for me 📝 After some hasty research (I learned this phrase from your post), the show's origin was the UK. Minomonta was imitating Chris Tarant, I think.
@CocoPop I haven't seen the movie yet, because I was traumatized by the show. However, it's been twenty years already, so I think I'll watch it now!
@Ersatzjello It's still tough for me to write about topics other than music. It'll take some time, but I should try to write about a wider range of topics.
@Simone- I vaguely remember the scandal.
@Akiko It's an oscar-winning movie and has less to do with the show than it does with the characters and their fascinating life experiences.
@CocoPop I remember it got really good reviews when it came out. I'll definitely check it out! Thanks for your recommendation!