In the United States, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (also known simply as Millionaire) is a television reality/game show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 (originally lump sum; now annuitized) for correctly answering 15 successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The show is based on and follows the same general format of the original version of the show from the United Kingdom, and is now part of the international Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire debuted in the United States on August 16, 1999 on the ABC television network, and was hosted by television personality Regis Philbin. In its initial run, it had the question mark at the end of the title just like its British counterpart. When it returned for its second run, the question mark was removed from the title.

The network version, whose episodes were originally shown just a day after their taping in New York, became explosively popular in 2000, and at its peak was airing in prime time four nights a week on ABC. The show was popular enough to find rival networks creating or reincarnating game shows of their own, and created a brief renaissance of sorts for United States based game shows (e.g. Greed, Twenty One, etc.) as well as a flurry of American versions of UK originals, such as Winning Lines and The Weakest Link.

ABC used Who Wants to be a Millionaire in so many prime time slots that when the show's popularity faded by the fall of 2001, it was left with a dearth of original programs on June 27, 2002. ABC's overall Nielsen Ratings suffered as a result of the show's decline in popularity. Michael Eisner, then CEO of The Walt Disney Company (ABC's parent), a former page at Jeopardy! and The Price Is Right, thought that the show would be successful like many other daytime television shows. However, he had realized too late that a hot show like Millionaire would tire more quickly in prime time than in daytime.www.eisner.cnbc.com/transcripts/regisphilbin.pdf

Millionaire's place as a daytime show was granted when ABC's sister company, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, revived the show as a daily syndicated offering with Meredith Vieira in 2002. This version, also taped in New York, began airing its seventh season on September 8, 2008, and has earned Vieira an Emmy for best game show hostwww.hollywood.com/celebrity/Meredith_Vieira/1578769#awards. The format is licenced by Sony Pictures Television as part of the acquisition of 2waytraffic in 2008.

Format

Preliminary Fastest Finger round

In the primetime era, 10 contestants had to compete for the right to get into the hot seat. Their objective was to complete a chronological order task in which they had to put four items in the correct order. They had 20 seconds to complete the task at hand.

In order to get into the hot seat, a contestant had to give the correct order in the fastest time. The contestants would do this by pressing buttons A, B, C, and D, and then hitting the OK button to lock in their answer.

If no one got it right, they would have to repeat the round with another question. In case of a tie, a tie breaker round would be run for those contestants.

The very first Fastest Finger question, and the answer choices, was:

Put the following valleys in order by geographical location from east to west:
a) Death Valley
b) Ohio Valley
c) Silicon Valley
d) Shenandoah Valley

(The correct sequence was: D-B-A-C)

'Fastest Finger' has been removed from the syndicated series with the host now calling the contestant out, and he or she coming into the set and immediately sitting in the hot seat.

Main game

Once a contestant gets into the hot seat, the goal is to answer 15 multiple-choice questions correctly from progressively harder sets of questions. Each question is worth a specified amount of money, and the contestant has the option of not answering. In this case, the contestant is awarded the amount of money they have earned for the their previous correct answer.

After passing either questions 5 or 10, the contestant is guaranteed that amount of prize money. If the contestant gives a wrong answer to any question, their game is over and their winnings will drop down to the last milestone they passed.

• Question Values

No.	Correct Answer Value	Walk-Away Value	Missed Answer Value	Amount Lost if Wrong
1	$100	$0	$0	$0
2	$200	$100	$0	$100
3	$300	$200	$0	$200
4	$500	$300	$0	$300
5	$1,000	$500	$0	$500
6	$2,000	$1,000	$1,000	$0
7	$4,000	$2,000	$1,000	$1,000
8	$8,000	$4,000	$1,000	$3,000
9	$16,000	$8,000	$1,000	$7,000
10	$25,000	$16,000	$1,000	$15,000
11	$50,000	$25,000	$25,000	$0
12	$100,000	$50,000	$25,000	$25,000
13	$250,000	$100,000	$25,000	$75,000
14	$500,000	$250,000	$25,000	$225,000
15	$1,000,000	$500,000	$25,000	$475,000

(Dollar changes as of 2004: $25,000 (from $32,000) $50,000 (from $64,000) $100,000 (from $125,000))

Starting with Season 7 of the current syndicated version (2008-09), (debuted on September 8, 2008), the graphics were updated, including a new “Millionaire Menu". The menu shows the categories of the contestant’s entire pyramid of 15 questions, which are revealed at the beginning of the game and are always visible to the player.

In addition, time limits have been added for answering the questions. The player will be given 15 seconds (the clock starts when the four answers are revealed, and runs while the host reads them) each for the first five questions, 30 seconds each for questions 6-10, and 45 seconds each for questions 11-14. For the $1,000,000 question, the contestant gets 45 seconds plus the unused time accumulated over all previous questions.

This is a rule change based on the former Disney World/California Adventure "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It!" live show, as well as a modified version of the shot clock present in the Australian version of the show, although in that version, the shot clock is 60 seconds long, and is only activated if the contestant is taking too long to make a decision (otherwise, there is initially no time limit). If, at any time, the clock expires during the game, the game ends and the contestant is forced to "walk away". In this situation the contestant is not credited with a wrong answer and wins the value of the last correct answer.

Lifelines

Contestants are given a series of 'Lifelines' to aid them with questions they are finding difficult. They can use as many lifelines as needed (even more than one), but each lifeline can only be used once.
For Season 7 of the syndicated version, two lifelines available in Season 6 were eliminated and replaced with two new lifelines.

In addition, the question timer for season 7 is frozen when a lifeline is used; once the lifeline is completed, the clock continues from that point.

Current lifelines

The two original lifelines still available in Season 7 are:

• Phone A Friend: Sponsored by AT&T (during the ABC primetime era), the contestant can call one of five pre-selected "friends" anywhere in the country to discuss the question for up to 30 seconds. In season 7, the Phone A Friend lifeline has more detailed information about the contestant's three potential lifeline friends, such as name, hometown, and photos.

• Ask The Audience: The contestant asks audience members to use touch pads to designate what they believe the correct answer to be.

The two new lifelines introduced in Season 7 are:

• Double Dip: Previously used on Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire, this lifeline allows the player to make two guesses at the question; however, once used, the contestant must answer the question, and cannot walk away or use any further lifelines. This lifeline is available throughout the game (unlike Super Millionaire, in which it was only available after the contestant correctly answered question 10 for $100,000.). The clock is frozen until the player gives his or her first answer; if that answer is wrong, the clock continues for their second guess. Giving another wrong answer or running out of time on the second guess will result in a loss.

• Ask the Expert: Once a contestant reaches the $1,000 level, they will have the opportunity to call an expert via live face-to-face video call, sponsored by Skype. The person can be anyone, such as a scientist, a celebrity, a newsmaker, a politician, or a past Millionaire winner. The lifeline functions similar to the Phone A Friend and includes such people as Bill Nye, Ogi Ogas, and other Sony Pictures Television game show champions such as Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy! game; Sony acquired Millionaire in 2008). This is a modification of the Three Wise Men lifeline from Super Millionaire (which, like Double Dip, was only available on the last five questions).

Defunct lifelines

• 50:50 (1999-2008): The computer eliminates two incorrect answers, leaving only one incorrect answer and the correct answer. Still used on all other international versions.
• Switch the Question (2004-2008): This lifeline was earned upon answering the $25,000 question. The computer replaced, at the contestant's request, one question with another of the same monetary value. Previously used Lifelines, such as 50/50, were not carried over to the new question.

Rule changes

By January 2001, the U.S. edition of the show struggled from not having a $1 million winner for over five months, so producers instituted a one-time skins game-type bonus of $10,000 per episode retroactive from the last episode the top prize was awarded. The bonus started at $1,710,000 and increased by $10,000 in the next hour show that was not won. With this bonus instituted, the top prize grew to $2 million (over 100 shows), making the first attempt at the million dollar question (by Gary Gambino in February 2001) actually worth twice its value.

Eventually, the bonus grew to $2.18 million, when Kevin Olmstead won the eventual prize on April 10, 2001. However, two such prizes were awarded due to an error in a question during the time the bonus was in place, when Ed Toutant won the top prize and the bonus was at $860,000 on January 31, 2001. When he continued in an episode not aired until September 7, 2001, he also answered all 15 of his questions correctly, and was given $1 million and the $860,000 bonus. It has not been reinstituted since.

In 2001, contestants (from previous prime time episodes) who missed a question in the first tier and left with no winnings were invited back for a special edition of Millionaire. This was repeated in 2003 for contestants from the first season of the syndicated program.

In 2002, unlike the U.K. version where some questions have joke answers, the $100 question always has a joke answer posed by Meredith Vieira as the last answer choice.

In the original US version of the show, the values progressed to: $16,000, $32,000 (safe), $64,000, $125,000.

During the Meredith Vieira run, the Switch the Question lifeline was added once the new, safe, $25,000 level (formerly $32,000) was attained. The values then reached $50,000 and $100,000 before the "traditional" 13th level question for $250,000.

Finally, the Ask the Audience lifeline was expanded. Instead of just the studio audience giving answers, users of the AOL Instant Messenger could participate as well. If they had asked the screenname MillionaireIM to allow his or her participation, then they would receive an instant message if a contestant used his or her Ask the Audience lifeline. The message would contain the question and four possible answers, and they would send their answer back.

This was the first time in history that the public had been able to interact with a game show while it was being taped. When the tape was shown, the results of the poll would first show the studio audience's response, then the IM users' response. The AIM side of the lifeline failed to work at times. In these instances, the game show's policy was to allow the contestant to only rely on the studio audience's response. The AOL Instant Messenger Ask the Audience lifeline has been suspended as of the fifth season of the syndicated version of the show following the withdrawal of sponsorship of the program by AOL.

The AOL Instant Messenger Ask the Audience also made it theoretically possible for potential phone-a-friends to see the question before they were called by the contestant, but it is unknown if this advantage was taken of to any extent.

Season 7 sparked several rule changes to the game. Contestants may now see the category of their questions before they are asked, the 50:50 lifeline was replaced with "Double-Dip," "Switch-the-Question" was removed from the game, "Ask-the-Expert was implemented and made available after the contestant answers the 5th question correctly, and a time limit was added to each question.

Season 7 Time Limits

Contestants must now provide their final answer to each question within a specified time limit. The clock for each question begins counting down immediately after all four answer choices have been revealed. Contestants who exceed this time limit are not penalized in terms of their current winnings, but rather are forced to walk away with all prize money they have won up to that point. (e.g. The clock expiring on a $1 Million question will end the contestants game with total winnings of $500,000.) The only exception to this rule is if the "Double-Dip" lifeline is currently being used; if the clock expires before a second final answer is given, it is treated as an incorrect answer. Any time remaining on the clock after each question is "banked" and given back to the contestant for their $1 Million question.

No.	Value	Time Limit	No.	Value	Time Limit	No.	Value	Time Limit	No.	Value	Time Limit
1 2 3 4 5	$100 $200 $300 $500 $1,000	15 Seconds	6 7 8 9 10	$2,000 $4,000 $8,000 $16,000 $25,000	30 Seconds	11 12 13 14	$50,000 $100,000 $250,000 $500,000	45 Seconds	15	$1 Million	45 Sec + Bank

Syndication

In 2002, Disney's Disney-ABC Domestic Television started selling a new version of the show for daily syndication, with a new host, Meredith Vieira (who previously appeared on the nighttime show and won $250,000 during a celebrity week where all the money would go to charities related to victims of 9/11). It was initially proposed and developed under the assumption that the prime time show would still be airing on ABC, but the prime time show was cancelled a few months before the syndicated show premiered. The syndicated version doesn't include the Fastest Finger competition; contestants are brought out individually during each half-hour show after passing contestant auditions, consisting of a written test and an interview.

Because of Vieira's commitments with her new job at NBC News, substitute hosts are frequently used, and have represented the traditional "big three" networks -- Tom Bergeron (employed by Disney for Dancing with the Stars), Al Roker (who also happens to work alongside Meredith Vieira on Today), and Tim Vincent (of NBC-syndicated Access Hollywood) each guest-hosted a week's worth of shows during the 2006-07 season. community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=700009300. CBS News weatherman Dave Price hosted a week of shows in March 2008, and NBC's Access Hollywood reporter Billy Bush reportedly also filled in for episodes that aired in April 2008. gameshow.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=13659&st=0 buzzerblog.flashgameshows.com/post-season-power-of-10-opinions-and-suggestions/#comment-25041 Leeza Gibbons also substituted for Vieira for a week in late-June of 2008.

During a week of episodes in Season Six (November 2007), to celebrate the syndicated version's 1,000th episode, all contestants that week started with $1,000 (which meant that no contestant could leave with nothing), and only had to answer ten questions to win the $1 Million. Also, 20 home viewers each day during that week won $1,000 each.

Qualifications

Unlike the original network version, where aspiring contestants made a phone call, answered a few questions correctly on the phone, and were randomly selected, leading to a fastest-finger competition to determine the player in the hot seat, the current version uses a more traditional game show procedure, similar to what is used for most game shows. This toughens the contestant pool.

In a 2007 interview with Jeopardy! champion Bob Harris, who has participated in tryouts for the current Millionaire, contestants, depending on touring (in markets of local Millionaire affiliates) or studio (in the ABC studios in New York) tryouts, are required to pass a quiz between 30 and 40 questions which is electronically scored.

Contestants who pass the general-knowledge test are then interviewed by production staff. Persons who impress the production staff the most are then sent to New York for the show for their taping.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/television/2003638513_tvgameshowaudition28.html

Popularity

The primetime version of the show initially drew in up to 30 million viewers a day three times a week, an unheard-of number in modern network television. In the 1999-2000 season, it averaged #1 in the ratings against all other television shows. The next year (2000-2001), it also frequently placed within the top three or top five programs; finishing at #3 in the ratingswww.chez.com/fbibler/tvstats/. However, the show's ratings began to fall during the 2000-2001 season, and by the start of the 2001-2002 season, the ratings were only a fraction of what they had been one year before. ABC's reliance on Millionaires popularity led to the network's falling quickly from its former spot as the nation's most-watched network.

The show was immensely popular in that one could qualify for the show (for most of the initial run and the two runs of "Super Millionaire") by competing in a telephone contest with hopefuls across the country by dialing a toll free number and answering three questions by putting things or events in order by using your telephone keypad, much like the show's "Fastest Finger First" (you had 10 seconds to enter the order on your keypad, and any wrong answer ended the game, and the call). The 10,000-20,000 people who answered all three questions correctly were entered into a random drawing in which approximately 300 people would compete for 10 spots on the show using the same phone quiz method. (For "Super Millionaire", it was five questions, with no "semifinal" callback round -- all callers successfully completing the five questions picked one tape date, and the players were drawn from that pool for each tape date.) In the days of the network show, contestants were flown in to New York City and put up in a hotel at ABC's expense. The syndicated show no longer does this. The program also had the advantage of immediacy as the program was taped for the following evening's airing.

Episodes of the primetime version have been rerun on GSN since September 2003 (except August 1999 & 2002 shows). Prime time Who Wants to be a Millionaire is the highest-rated regularly-scheduled program on GSN. GSN began airing the daytime half-hour version on November 10, 2008.

The game itself is still quite popular among trivia enthusiasts. It is a popular online game on social networking sites such as MySpace.

Spin-offs & Special Editions

Special editions

The show has had various special editions such as:

• Celebrity Edition (where winnings go to a charity),
• Champions Edition (where big winners come back and split their winnings with a charity),
• Top of the Charts Edition (similar to Celebrity Edition but with musical artists who have chart-topping hits and their winnings go to their charity of choice),
• Zero Dollar Winner Edition (where those who took home nothing got a second chance), and
• Family Edition where, for example, a father and son face the questions together.

Also notable is an edition aired in February 2001 in which H&R Block calculated the taxes of winnings so the contestants could earn their stated winnings after taxes, called Tax-Free Edition.

During two seasons, there was also a Couples Edition where married couples played together. In recent years, special contestant episodes such as Play to Pay for Your Wedding Edition (featuring engaged couples), College Edition (featuring undergraduate college students, taking place in Walt Disney World), Teacher Edition (featuring schoolteachers), and Walk In & Win Edition (featuring audience members who haven't taken the audition test, also from Walt Disney World) have aired annually. The first season featured a Twins Edition (featuring twin contestants), which played similar to the Couples Edition and Play To Pay For Your Wedding Edition.

Themed question shows featuring questions concerning professional football (Super Bowl Edition), celebrity gossip (Celebrity Scoop Edition), the movies (Netflix Million Dollar Movie Edition; Academy Awards Edition) and pop culture (Pop Culture Edition) have aired on occasion as well.

The prime time show began as a half-hour show aired over several consecutive nights, but was made into a multi-weekly hour-long show when it was added permanently to the schedule in January 2000, allowing more Fastest Finger contestants to reach the Hot Seat in each episode. In special events it may be extended from half an hour to an hour. Episodes of the syndicated show run 30 minutes in length every weekday.

Champions Edition

In 2000, previous Millionaire contestants were on a special edition where they would go for the hot seat again, winning half for charity. Examples of contestants were: John Carpenter (the first US winner), Dan Blonsky, Neil Larrimore, Stephanie Girardi (the first woman to see the million-dollar question) and more.

Celebrity versions

The show began to dabble in celebrity versions of the game in mid-2000, at the height of its popularity. The first version featured stars such as Drew Carey, Rosie O'Donnell, Queen Latifah, and Dana Carvey; later celebrity players included P. Diddy, Vanessa Williams, Chevy Chase, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, Norm MacDonald, and future Millionaire host Meredith Vieira. Later, Carol Alt, Martin Short, Florence Henderson, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Tyrese, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Charlie Sheen, Jon Stewart, Joey McIntyre and more. Drew Carey is the only celebrity to be on Millionaire twice (First time was $500,000 and then the second time was $32,000 which was a drop from $125,000 for a grand total of $532,000).

Rosie O'Donnell is the only celebrity to be on Millionaire and then later be a Phone-A-Friend. She along with Steve Martin, Sam Simon and Kim Basinger are the only celebrity phone-a-friends. P. Diddy ($125,000), Valerie Bertinelli ($125,000), Jon Stewart ($125,000), Queen Latifah ($250,000), Martin Short ($32,000 which was a drop from $250,000), Heidi Klum ($250,000), Kelly Ripa ($250,000), John Leguizamo ($32,000 which was a drop from $125,000), Martina McBride ($125,000), Ben Stiller ($32,000 which was a drop from $125,000) Lance Bass ($125,000), Emeril Lagasse ($125,000), Vivica A. Fox ($64,000), Nick Lachey ($125,000), William Shatner ($32,000 which was a drop from $125,000), David Duchovny ($32,000 which was a drop from $500,000), Denis Leary ($125,000), Drew Carey (see above) and Jack Black ($125,000) are the only Millionaire celebrities to also go on Live with Regis and Kelly (Ripa being the co-host). Drew Carey, Rosie O'Donnell and Norm MacDonald (in that order) are the only celebrities to win $500,000.

The show was a huge hit in the ratings, and since they were playing for charity and for fear that celebrities would be too embarrassed to miss an early question, all players were allowed to receive help from their fellow players to attain the $32,000 level, resulting in some humorous exchanges when a celebrity player grew stumped. A classic example of this occurred in an episode (second episode of second celebrity edition for $300) where Jon Lovitz could not identify limes as the second ingredient in Sprite (after lemons), which prompted Kermit the Frog, who was there just for support, to amusingly ask him, "Hey Jon, what color am I? (referring to the fact that he and limes are both green)," after which Lovitz answered the question correctly. (Kermit in which is the only Muppet and celebrity audience member to be on Live.)

ABC began to rely heavily on celebrity episodes - for most of the 2001-02 season, fully half of the series were celebrity or other "special editions", a move which coincided with the show's drop from the top of the ratings. When celebrities played the game, because they were playing for charity, all were guaranteed at least $32,000, even if they missed a question before reaching it (which happened to one contestant when she missed the $32,000 question but left with $32,000 anyway; in addition, KISS singer Gene Simmons was left with $32,000 even though he missed his $16,000 question). In most cases, all contestants got a shot at the main game. In cases in which that did not apply, at the end of the series, all contestants that failed to get into the hotseat were automatically given $32,000.

It was announced in 2005 that the syndicated show would bring back celebrities for a special edition to air in November 2005, but those episodes never materialized.

Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire

In 2004, Regis Philbin returned to ABC for 12 episodes of a spin-off Millionaire called Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire or better known as Super Millionaire. The show offered a $10 Million top prize. The show premiered in February 2004 and showed 5 episodes. The show returned later in May 2004 for 7 more episodes.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It!

A version of this game named Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! was formerly an attraction at the Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida and at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, California. The game was very similar to the television version. When a show started, a "Fastest Finger First" question was given, and the audience was asked to put the four answers in order. Fastest time was first player in the Hot Seat for that show.

Notable contestants

Main article: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Notable Contestants (US)

Trivia

• During a series of shows in October 2003, an audience member was randomly selected when a new contestant began their game. Should that contestant win $1,000, an audience member also received a $1,000 prize. On October 10th 2003, two consecutive contestants incorrectly answered the $1,000 question resulting in both contestants winning nothing and the audience members not receiving any prize until another contestant passed the $1,000 question later on in the episode.

• Meredith Vieira once mistakenly announced that a contestant had correctly answered their $1,000 question, only to find out a moment later that they were actually incorrect. This error took place during the special series in October 2003 when audience members would also win a $1,000 prize along with the contestant. Once the incorrect answer was given, Vieira stated "The audience loves you. OHH... Wait a minute. That's wrong. I so apologize, I thought you were right!" (Contestant: Cathy Donley)

• In the show's seventh season, there have been at least two occasions where the computer game operator has locked in a contestant's choice before they indicated it was their "final answer." Once during a main question, and once while using the "Double Dip" lifeline.

• The most number of consecutive correctly answered questions without walking away or answering incorrectly in the syndicated format of the show is 29. (Nancy Christy - 15/$1 Million, immediately followed by Armand Kachigian - 14/$500,000) It was the only time in the show's history (in the US) where only one question came between the show having "back-to-back" million dollar winners.

• There have been two times during the show's entire run that there were two zero dollar winners in the same show, both missing the same question. The first was October 10, 2003, when Cathy Donley and Sarah Seo both missed the $1,000 question and this happened again on January 21, 2008, when Mary Weimer and Scott Babbidge both missed the $500 question.

• On November 24th, 2008, former contestant Patrick Hugh (Laurel, DE) returned to the hot seat after the discovery of a discrepancy in his original game. Hugh had won $1,000 during his first game with the use of many lifelines. After the show aired, a critical word in his $25,000 question was found to be misspelled. He was given the option of being awarded $25,000 "no questions asked" or to forfeit his winnings and return to the show and begin his game with a new $25,000 question with all four of his lifelines reinstated. Hugh used two lifelines (Ask the Audience/Double-Dip) to correctly answer his new $25,000 question, only to later miss the $50,000 question after using his Phone-a-Friend and Ask-the-Expert lifelines, so he left with $25,000 this time.

"Dumbest Contestant" Hoax

In 2006, a screenshot from the UKGameshows.com site www.ukgameshows.com/page/index.php?title=Who_Wants_to_be_a_Millionaire%3F#Key_moments was digitally altered and used in a piece on the satire site BS News bsnews.org/articles/135. The image was also widely circulated as a spoof email www.snopes.com/radiotv/gameshows/millionaire.asp, in which it was purported to show a fictional contestant named Kathy Evans failing to answer a simple $100 question correctly after using all three lifelines because she was too skeptical of the assistance that was given. This was inspired by a number of contestants on the actual show who missed the $100 question (such as Chase Sampson and Paul Weir Galm), as well as one contestant who missed the $300 question after using all three lifelines, because he doubted the assistance that was given.

The screenshot used in the image was actually a digitally-altered image of another (real-life) contestant named Fiona Wheeler on the original UK version of the show answering a different question from a higher tier. Far from failing at the first question, Wheeler won £32,000, only to miss another question later on after passing that mark. She was famous for stating that she wanted to bathe in a bathtub filled with chocolate, which she later actually went on to do in a photo shootwww.ukgameshows.com/page/index.php?title=Who_Wants_to_be_a_Millionaire%3F.

How the creators of the hoax came up with the contestant's name and why they selected the question that she got wrong are unknown.