Take My Hand Trivia Quiz

Answer: 50:50

When "Millionaire" debuted in 1998, in the U.K., there were three lifelines: "50:50," "Phone-A-Friend" and "Ask the Audience". When the show came to America the next year, the format was exactly the same. Additional versions of the show soon appeared all over the world, but in every instance, the original three lifelines remained unchanged for years. And "50:50" was always handy, because as its name implies, using it removed two of the wrong answers from the current question, leaving the contestant a "fifty-fifty" chance of guessing correctly.

For a few months in early 2004, the American version of the show was changed to a special format called "Super Millionaire", with a bigger jackpot. If a contestant correctly answered the first ten questions (out of fifteen), they received two extra lifelines: "Three Wise Men" and "Double Dip". The latter lifeline allowed two guesses on a question. This made for an interesting scenario, because it meant a player could use "50:50" -- leaving just two answer choices -- and then call upon "Double Dip," thus guaranteeing that one of their two answers would be the correct one.

Answer: Power Paplu

Generally, no matter what country's version of "Millionaire" you're talking about, once a lifeline is gone, it's gone. (This is aside from instances where a lifeline may be reinstated if a computer error causes the lifeline to malfunction.) Thus, Power Paplu was the one exception. If you'd already spent the "50:50", for example, you could use this to have it reactivated. (If you had more than one used-up lifeline, it was your choice which one to bring back.)

The word and basic concept of "Paplu" is taken from a card game called Indian Rummy. In that context, it is a wild-card, allowing a player to substitute one of their cards for any card they are missing -- hence the name "Paplu". The "Millionaire" equivalent, of course, is that "Power Paplu" lets a player have a second use of any expended lifeline of their choice.

Answer: Ask the Audience

Courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic, television programs of all types -- sitcoms, late-night talk shows, game shows and more -- made the difficult decision to film their episodes without a live audience. So when "Millionaire" was revived in 2020, the already-dark set looked even more ominous with all the rings of empty seats. Obviously, players couldn't "ask the audience" when there was none, so "Ask the Host" was created, allowing the opportunity to discuss one question with the presenter -- though to receive it, the player had to "trade out" one of their other lifelines. Additionally, contestants were still allowed to bring one friend along, who could (conditionally) be asked for assistance.

Traditionally, "Ask the Audience" was a fairly reliable lifeline (although the accuracy did tend to sharply decline in the third and hardest tier of questions). About 200 people made up the average studio audience, and each person had a small keyboard with four buttons: A, B, C, D. Obviously, the hope was that a majority -- or at least a plurality -- of the crowd would vote for the correct answer. Sometimes the crowd was overwhelmingly right and all 100% were right; in rare cases, the opposite happened, with zero percent of the guesses proving to be correct. Rather amusingly (though exasperatingly for the player), on a few occasions where "50:50" had been deployed prior to "Ask the Audience," the poll results ended up with the two remaining answers having both received exactly 50% of the vote.

Also noteworthy: Russia's version of "Millionaire" eliminated the audience-poll lifeline many years before COVID came on the scene. Why? Because it was determined that Russian audiences were deliberately voting for wrong answers!

Answer: Switch the Question

Also simply called "Flip" in the U.K., "Switch the Question" was a fairly short-lived lifeline in the American syndicated version. The general idea, of course, was that if a player really had no idea about the answer, they could -- one time -- ask for a different question and hope that it would be about a topic they knew more about. In the game's traditional format, questions increased in both difficulty and value, so whenever a question was "switched", the replacement question would be one taken from the same difficulty level. That is, if you "switched" a question at the $100,000 level, the computer would randomly choose another one of the same value -- you wouldn't receive a higher- or lower-tier question.

Still, there were a couple of catches. For one, once "Switch the Question" was called for, there was no turning back -- if a player found the new question even more challenging, they were stuck with it. That is, you couldn't say "I think I liked the first question better!" and return to it. Additionally, an element of strategy was involved: If a player used any other lifelines on the original question and still opted for "Switch," those lifelines remained spent -- they didn't "carry over" to the new question. This meant, of course, that players had to be judicious about how and when they used their lifelines.

Answer: Crystal Ball

In 2010, the gameplay of the American version was changed significantly, to a format often called "Shuffle". In this version, the first ten questions were no longer presented in order of increasing difficulty -- instead, both the money value and the order of questions were randomized. In this layout, known as "Super Mix," any question could be worth any amount. In some cases, the very first question was actually the hardest one; and because the money values were also "shuffled", sometimes the easiest question would be worth the most.

Not only did the computer randomly arrange the ten questions, but the mixed-up values were not shown to the contestant -- meaning you didn't know if a given question was worth $100 or $25,000! For a few weeks around Halloween in 2012, however, lifelines were redesigned, and a new one was added: "Crystal Ball." Using this allowed the player to see how much money was "behind" a given question before deciding whether to answer it. The icon for this lifeline depicted a hand touching a glowing orb; when activated, it triggered a special animation of the question and answer choices swirling around inside the "Crystal Ball" followed by the dollar value.

Also of interest: "Crystal Ball" was unique in that it became unusable if the player successfully answered round one's ten questions without using the lifeline. The reason was simple: The value of the final four questions (in round two) was never hidden or randomized, so at that point, there was obviously no use for a lifeline whose only use was to reveal how much a question was worth.

Answer: Jump the Question

In 2010, when the show changed to the "Shuffle" format, each player began with one "Ask the Audience" lifeline and TWO "Jump the Question" lifelines -- not exactly the height of variety (though in 2015, "50:50" replaced one of the "Jumps"). Anyway, it was an oddity in some ways -- unlike some lifelines that allowed a player to have a question replaced with a new one, "Jump" simply moved the gameplay straight on to the next question. Because the "Shuffle" format meant that the first ten questions would be played with the difficulty and dollar values randomized, the risk factor of "Jump" was that a player never knew whether they might be missing out on a high-value question.

Contestants who successfully cleared the ten-question "Super Mix" round would then play the final questions in round two, called "Classic 'Millionaire'", with the final four questions worth $100,000, $250,000, $500,000 and $1,000,000. In a few rare instances, players managed to enter the second round with one or even both "Jumps" still available. This meant that if you were good enough, you could potentially skip right over some of the hardest questions -- though of course, if you knew one of those answers, it was worthwhile to play the question and then have the option to quit with that much more cash.

Of all the various lifelines that existed through the show's many formats, "Jump the Question" was the only one (apart from "Crystal Ball") that could not be used at the million-dollar question. Logically, it makes sense: Again, the lifeline simply moved players ahead to the next question, so at the final question, there was nothing more to "Jump" to.

Answer: Ask the Stars

To see this lifeline in action, you'd have to have been watching an episode from either the German, Norwegian, Swedish, Hungarian or Slovakian versions of "Millionaire". This esoteric-sounding "Ask the Stars" summoned two or three celebrities -- who were sequestered off-stage -- to offer their opinions on a given question. It was functionally almost identical to the "Three Wise Men" lifeline in the United States, though "Ask the Stars" usually featured just two people.

In some instances, the "stars" were de-facto celebrities; in other cases, they were people who had previously won the show's top prize themselves. When it was the latter, the lifeline was sometimes also referred to as "Ask the Millionaires". Regardless, the usage was the same: The guests were present in-studio but communicated with via a video feed. Once the current question was shown to them, a one-minute clock began to count down as they and the player discussed the answer choices.

Answer: Double Dip

"Double Dip" was one of the more complex lifelines in some regards. It was introduced during "Super Millionaire," and in that format, the two new lifelines -- "Double Dip" and "Three Wise Men" -- only became available after a player correctly answered the tenth question. And true, in theory, if a player had managed to save their "50:50," they could use it and "Double Dip" on the same question to guarantee a correct answer. At least in the U.S. version, however, no one ever managed to achieve this.

"Double Dip" was basically a riskier version of "50:50", because as stated, there were rules. For one thing, if there were any other lifelines you wanted to use on a question, you had to take them *before* double-dipping. Once "Double Dip" was activated, you couldn't call upon any additional lifelines. And second, while normally a "Millionaire" contestant was shown the question and then asked whether or not to hazard a guess, "Double Dip" took away that freedom. That is, if a player said "I'm going to 'Double Dip'" then they'd get two guesses, but they could no longer say, "I'm going to walk away."

Long after "Super Millionaire" was over, "Double Dip" eventually returned as a lifeline, but there was a new twist: The syndicated episodes had switched to "Clock Format," meaning every question had a time limit. In this structure, if the timer expired, the contestant had to stop and take whatever they'd won.

But again, "Double Dip" was the exception. If a player asked to use it, they had to give their first guess immediately -- no stalling. And if the first guess was incorrect, the clock resumed, and the player had to give their second answer before the countdown ended. If time ran out while "Double Dip" was active, it counted as a wrong answer. As the host said to one player, "When you 'Double Dip', you're not allowed to walk away."

Answer: Code Red

"Code Red" was a strange lifeline -- and a bit of a novelty. To be clear, from "Millionaire's" earliest days, getting help from others was always a key part of the gameplay. Players were always allowed to bring a couple of family members or friends to sit in the audience, so that wasn't anything new. The audience could be polled for their opinion. "Plus One" allowed an in-studio friend to come down and discuss a question.

All that to say, interacting with others was not what gave "Code Red" its novelty. No, it was distinct because it was the only lifeline -- in any version of "Millionaire" -- that was activated by someone other than the contestant.

Since players tend to talk about their thoughts as they try to figure out a question, they will generally indicate which answer they is correct one. With "Code Red," a contestant's friend can press a button to warn them that, effectively, "The answer you're considering is not the correct one." True to its name, activation of "Code Red" causes an alarm to sound and the studio lights to change from blue to bright red. In some formats of the show, this lifeline could be used only once; in other cases, if all the other lifelines were already used up, a "Code Red" warning could be used on multiple questions.

Mainly because of the diversity of languages in India, many different versions of the game co-existed. Aesthetically, each version had its own unique variation of elements like the show's theme music and logo. Gameplay-wise, each version also used its own distinct "money tree" -- that is, the amount of money associated with each question.

Answer: Phone-A-Complete Stranger

In the U.S., "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" gained such popularity that for five years, Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL, held its own version of the show -- complete with lifelines, prizes, the famously tense music, and an identical set. This unique experience didn't offer money but special show-themed items and clothes. Originally, the grand prize was a trip to New York to attend a live taping of the *real* show -- later, the jackpot was a Disney Cruise for four. (Winners also got a spiffy leather jacket and a huge, shiny medallion. I should know: I'm speaking from personal experience!)

Anyway, some differences naturally had to exist from the televised series, partly because contestant selection was not predetermined; a few randomly chosen people played the "Fastest Finger First" qualifying question to see who would go to the Hot Seat. Lifeline-wise, "50:50" and "Ask the Audience" remained the same, but unlike the TV show -- where contestants chose Phone-A-Friends beforehand -- it wasn't possible to have the same sort of pre-show planning, so the lifeline got an overhaul and became "Phone-A-Complete Stranger".

It worked like this: An in-studio phone line was connected to ring a specially designated, red telephone outside, near the soundstage of "Millionaire." Upon asking for the lifeline, a call was made to the exterior phone, and the Disney World employee who picked up was told to ask any random park visitor if they would help the contestant try to answer a question. When a person agreed, they were given the usual "Phone-A-Friend" explanation and thirty seconds to hear the question and choices and then discuss with the player.

If the player answered correctly, they received whatever prize was currently at stake. And as for the stranger on the other end, just for being a good sport and playing along, they received a prize too: a metal pin and a large button with the show's logo, above which was printed "I Was A Complete Stranger."