What if there was an "Ultra Millionaire" with a $100m prize?

[supermillionaire]

What if, someday, there was an "Ultra Millionaire" with a $100 million top prize? Perhaps the show could team up with the national lottery or something in order to make this event possible? The size of the audience should be at least the same size as the former Play It! attraction at Walt Disney World. My concept for the hypothetical Ultra Millionaire would use the Fastest Finger round and the following money tree:

Prize for winning the Fastest Finger round: $100

1: $1,000

2: $2,000

3: $3,000

4: $4,000

5: $5,000

6: $10,000

7: $50,000

8: $100,000

9: $500,000

10: $1 million

11: $5 million

12: $10 million

13: $25 million

14: $50 million

15: $100 million

The game would use the following lifelines:

Available at the start of the game:

Phone-a-Friend - makes a 30-second phone call to one of 3 friends placed backstage in isolated sound-proof booths

50:50 - randomly eliminates 2 incorrect answers

Ask the Audience - polls the audience using digital keypads for the most popular answer

Unlocked after question 10:

Cards of Chance - presents the contestants with three cards, which eliminate 1, 2, or all 3 incorrect answers.

Ask an Expert - consults one of three experts on what they think the answer is.

Get a Clue - provides the contestant with a hint as to what the correct answer might be.

Rule on time: Initially, there is no time limit; however, if the contestant takes too long, they will be placed on a 60-second shot clock; if the shot clock expires, the contestant will be forced to walk away.

[Deleted]

The idea is actually very nice, but I do have some questions about it - if you wouldn't mind.

1. If a contestant uses the lifeline "Get a clue", how exactly is it going to work? Is there a way that the hint could lead into giving the wrong answer?

2. How much time does the contestant have before the 60-second-clock is activated?

[supermillionaire]

The Get a Clue lifeline will provide you with some information that will give you a hint on what the correct answer might be.

The Cards of Chance lifeline would present the contestant with three cards, initially placed face up, revealing that they eliminate only one, two, or all three incorrect answers, and then they will be placed faced down and shuffled, after which the player must pick the card that they think is the one that eliminates all three incorrect answers.

As for the amount of time required in order to activate the 60-second shot clock, for the first 5 questions, the shot clock activates after the contestant spends more than 5 minutes on a question; for the next five questions, the shot clock activates after spending more than 10 minutes on a question; for the next four questions, the shot clock activates after spending more than 15 minutes on a question; and for the final question, the shot clock activates after spending more than 30 minutes on the question. If the shot clock expires, the contestant will be forced to walk away with whatever winnings they have earned up to that point.

[kplewisvox]

Ridiculous.

You saw how hard they had to make the game just to offer a $10 million prize, right? To do what you've suggested, they'd have to make the game even harder. Hardly anyone would make it past question 9. And if someone did reach question 11, you're gonna give them a free guess to win $4 million?

[JCEurovision]

Nov 16, 2017 4:22:50 GMT -5 kplewisvox said:

Ridiculous.

You saw how hard they had to make the game just to offer a $10 million prize, right? To do what you've suggested, they'd have to make the game even harder. Hardly anyone would make it past question 9. And if someone did reach question 11, you're gonna give them a free guess to win $4 million?

I agree with him. The amounts for the second and third levels are ridiculous. I think the money tree should have the top prize of $20,000,000.

[Gagamillionaire]

I'd like to propose "Mega Millionaire" with a top prize of a floppity jillion dollars.

I don't see what the point of playing around with tens of millions of dollars is. I get the appeal of $1,000,000. It's an amount that's more or less imaginable, more than most of us will earn in a lifetime. Enough to call yourself rich. But everything beyond that is just playing Wall Street. I don't have the faintest idea what I'd even do with ten million dollars, let alone 100. At some point the zeros just become subjectively meaningless. There's no benefit to the game, too, apart from everyone walking away early, because nobody wants to gamble with gigantic amounts of money and no TV network would be stupid enough just to throw it at the contestants.

[kplewisvox]

If you absolutely HAD to do it, like if Coca-Cola said "We wanna sponsor a $100,000,000 grand prize", just do the regular money tree to $1,000,000, then add two more jackpot questions for $10m and $100m.

[multimillionaire93]

I see that most replies, especially at the very end, criticize the very idea of a variant of Millionaire with a heavily-amplified cash tree.

Well, it may or may not be a confession, but..... Part of my luck format is that contestants could play for a higher top prize or a value multiplier with a value of any number from 2 to 10, and in addition to that, they could also play to have a chance to have an extra "16th" question worth 2-10 times the regular top prize. That means if a contestant gets the extra question worth 10 times and the x10 multiplier or x10 top prize value, that means they could play for a top prize up to $100 Million. If you want more information, check out my "Luck Format" thread in the Creativity part.

Does even that count as too much?! But otherwise, I would never bring in higher top prize or multiplier values of more than 10, because that would just be too far and wasteful.

[Deleted]

That's kinda true. Although I actually like the idea, the problem DOES rely on the top prize of $100 Million. I think it really would be better if it was set to $20 Million, just as JCEurovision suggested. 

[supermillionaire]

Here's the thing: the reason why I came up with this concept is because I wanted to break records. That's what the money tree is intended for. After all, all records are made to be broken. Now, I don't expect anyone to win $100 million, $50 million, or even $25 million, but I would still like to see someone win at least $5 million or $10 million. The largest amount anyone has won on any game show is $2.6 million, which was won by the winner of The Million Second Quiz in 2013; I'd like to see someone break that record by winning at least $5 million on a hypothetical Ultra Millionaire. Also, the $5 million question may be a free guess, but if they answer incorrectly on the $10 million question, they lose $4 million.

[Limewire18]

I think the first contestant to participate would be Donald Trump if it was a real thing.

[Peachfanclub]

Aug 5, 2018 2:07:48 GMT -5 Limewire18 said:

I think the first contestant to participate would be Donald Trump if it was a real thing.

Aug 5, 2018 2:06:01 GMT -5 Limewire18 said:

What's with the Lights Down effect? I kinda liked it in Super Millionaire. I wish they could renew the season again.

Two dead thread bumps in a minute flat. You're on fire today.

[FinalAnswer19]

Aug 5, 2018 2:07:48 GMT -5 Limewire18 said:

I think the first contestant to participate would be Donald Trump if it was a real thing.

Please watch the dead thread bumping. Anymore of it may result in a warning level raise.