Million Dollar Password
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''Million Dollar Password'' is an updated version of the game show ''
Password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...
'' on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
, which was hosted by
Regis Philbin Regis Francis Xavier Philbin ( ; August 25, 1931 – July 25, 2020)Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine was an American television presenter, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest-working man in show business", he held th ...
and ran from June 1, 2008, to June 14, 2009.
FremantleMedia Fremantle Limited (), formerly FremantleMedia, is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. The company was founded as Pearson Television in 1993 when publishing and education company Pearson ...
produced the program.


Production and broadcast history

''Million Dollar Password'' premiered June 1, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. The initial order of the series consisted of six hour-long episodes, each comprising two games. These six episodes were taped in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
's
Kaufman Astoria Studios The Kaufman Astoria Studios is a film studio located in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The studio was constructed for Famous Players–Lasky in 1920, since it was close to Manhattan's Theater District. The property was ...
in March 2008. Repeats of the first season aired on Thursdays beginning June 26, 2008, moved to Sundays on August 3, 2008 and finished on August 24, 2008. Season two, another six episodes, began on December 18, 2008, with a special Thursday broadcast. The show moved to its regular Sunday time slot three nights later. These games were taped on August 2–4, 2008, at CBS Radford studios in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. On January 7, 2009, despite good ratings, CBS removed the last two episodes (one featuring
Norm Macdonald Norman Gene MacdonaldThe capitalization of Norm Macdonald's surname has been inconsistently reported in publications such as ''TV Guide''. Books that discuss him, such as ''Shales'' (2003) and Crawford' (2000), as well as other sources such as ...
and Jamie Kennedy scheduled for January 11, 2009 and another with
Chelsea Handler Chelsea Joy Handler (born February 25, 1975) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, television host, and producer. She hosted the late-night talk show '' Chelsea Lately'' on the E! network from 2007 to 2014 and released a documenta ...
and
Jeff Garlin Jeffrey Garlin (born June 5, 1962) is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for playing List of Curb Your Enthusiasm characters#Jeff Greene, Jeff Greene on the HBO sitcom ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', and Murray ...
scheduled for January 25, 2009), along with a Season 1 repeat scheduled for January 18, 2009, from its schedule. The program returned to the schedule on May 24, 2009. Excluding June 7, 2009 for the broadcast of the 63rd Tony Awards, the network ran a mixture of unseen episodes and repeats of Season 1 and 2 episodes on Sundays until the beginning of July. The first four episodes, airing during the official 2008–09 television season, had an average viewership that made the show finish as the 42nd most-viewed program of that season.
Betty White Betty Marion Ludden ( White; January 17, 1922December 31, 2021), known professionally as Betty White, was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television with a career spanning almost seven decades, she was noted for her vas ...
became the first celebrity to play in all American television versions of ''Password'' with her appearance on the June 12, 2008, episode. The widow of
Allen Ludden Allen Ellsworth Ludden (born Allen Packard Ellsworth; October 5, 1917 – June 9, 1981) was an American television personality, actor, singer, emcee, and game show host. He hosted various incarnations of the game show ''Password'' between 1 ...
, who was the host of the original Password in its various incarnations from 1961 to 1980, she also appeared on December 28, 2008, and was the only celebrity to appear more than once during the show's run. Sande Stewart, the son of ''Password'' creator Bob Stewart, was a consultant for the show. Noted cruciverbalist Trip Payne acted as the show's "word expert". On August 3, 2009, during the 2009
Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 American and Canadian television critics, journalists and columnists who cover television programming for newspapers, magazines and web publications. The TCA accepts appli ...
Summer Press Tour, CBS Entertainment President
Nina Tassler Nina Tassler is an American film and television executive and producer. She was most recently the chairwoman of CBS Entertainment until 2015. Life and career Tassler was born in New York City to a Jewish father and a Puerto Rican mother who conve ...
officially announced that there were no plans to renew the series; despite strong overall ratings, the show was most popular among a very old demographic that was not popular with advertisers. GSN originally aired repeats of the series on Sunday nights in mid-2010, later putting the show additionally on weeknights for a few weeks more, until removing the show from the schedule completely. It was then re-added in a Saturday afternoon slot in January 2011. In June 2013, GSN removed the series from the schedule again. In 2021, episodes of the series then aired on
Buzzr Buzzr (stylized as BUZZR) is an American digital broadcast television network owned by Fremantle North America, a unit of the Fremantle subsidiary of RTL Group. The network serves as an outlet for the extensive library of classic game shows ow ...
. The director of the show was Mark Gentile; he served as the director for the primetime version of ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (WWTBAM) is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Televis ...
'' for its entire network run (between 1999 and 2002, which Philbin had also hosted) and was the consulting producer for the syndicated version's first two seasons before becoming the director of ''
Duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...
'' (which aired between December 2007 and July 2008).


Gameplay

This format of ''Password'' departs somewhat from its predecessors in terms of gameplay. The first half of the game is an elimination game featuring two contestants and two celebrity guests. The contestants alternate playing 30-second rounds in which they attempt to correctly identify as many as five given words with a celebrity partner using the traditional one-word clue method, like the ''Lightning Round''. There is no limit on the number of clues for each word. Words can be passed on and returned to later if time permits. The contestants are each paired with one of the celebrity partners for the first two rounds, and then switch partners for the next two rounds. The rounds alternate between the contestant giving and receiving clues, such that they give and receive once to each celebrity. After four rounds, the contestant who has correctly identified the most words moves on to the Million Dollar Password game. For the final round, the contestant who is trailing in score plays first. Their opponent does not need to play the final round if they are still leading after that, and otherwise has their round cut short as soon as they have passed his opponent's score. If the contestants are tied after four rounds, a tie-breaking word is given to both teams, starting with the winner of a coin-toss. The teams alternate giving clues and responses until one contestant gets the word and wins the game.


Million Dollar Password

The Million Dollar Password round had a six-step prize ladder with a top prize of $1,000,000. The contestant's partner in this round was the celebrity with whom the contestant earned more points in the elimination game, if the contestant earned the same number with both celebrities, their partner is the last celebrity the contestant played with. The contestant may choose to give or receive the clues for the entire round. For each step of the ladder, the clue giver must get their partner to say five given passwords within 90 seconds. For each word, the clue giver may give a maximum of three clues (similar to Cashword from ''Super Password''). The giver may pass, but cannot return to a word, like the original " Lightning Round" of the classic ''Password''. Successful contestants may take their winnings and leave, or may attempt the next prize level. At each subsequent level the gameplay remains the same, but the number of available passwords is reduced by one. Failure to complete a level ends the game. A contestant who fails on the first two levels earns nothing. Failure on the $50,000, $100,000, or $250,000 levels means the contestant leaves with $25,000. Should a contestant clear the first five levels, s/he wins a guaranteed $250,000 and gets a free shot at the $1,000,000 top prize. (In season one, $250,000 was not a safety level). If a contestant giving the clues clears the $100,000 level, they are shown the six (the first five in season one) passwords for the $250,000 level (and in season one, the five passwords at the $1,000,000 level) before making a decision.


Legal clues

Throughout the game, the giver must wait for a response before giving a new clue, and only one response may be given at a time. Breaking either rule forfeits the word. (The guesser may suggest the giver pass, but only the clue giver may officially do so).
Antonyms In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''even'' entails that it is not ''odd''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members i ...
are acceptable clues, but hyphenated clues and acronyms are not. Using more than one word, a "coined", foreign or otherwise unrecognized clue will also forfeit the word. As before, givers may use multiple words to form sentences and phrases, but must pause in (and wait for a response) between each word.


International versions


France

An adaptation of the ''Million Dollar Password'' format was aired from January 10, 2009 to July 30, 2016 on
France 2 France 2 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. The flagship channel of France Télévisions, it broadcasts generalist programming including news, entertainment (such as dramas, films, and game shows), factual programmes, and sp ...
, where it is called 'Mot de passe' (French for "password"). The show is rebroadcast in Canada on TV5.


Indonesia

A version of ''Million Dollar Password'' called Password Jutawan ("Password Millionaire") aired originally on Global TV with Muhammad Farhan as host from 2008 to 2009.


Mexico

A version called ''Password: La palabra secreta'' ("Password: The secret word") produced by
TV Azteca Televisión Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., commonly known as TV Azteca, is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as so ...
, airs Saturdays on
Azteca 13 Azteca Uno (formerly Azteca Trece) is a Mexican national broadcast television network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 transmitters across the country. Azteca Uno broadcasts on virtual channel 1. Azteca Uno programming is available in M ...
.


Spain

A version based on the ''Million Dollar Password'' format has been adapted for their audience. The program, entitled ''Password'', premiered on July 7, 2008. Hosted by Luján Argüelles, it is nearly identical to the 2008 Philbin version. The biggest differences include the top prize of
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...
25,000 and changing the program to a forty-five-minute (with commercials) weekday broadcast.


Licensed merchandise

Endless Games began distributing a home box version of ''Million Dollar Password'' in November 2008 and a second edition was released in June 2010. iToys distributed a handheld electronic version of the program in 2008. In November 2008,
RealArcade RealArcade (formerly RealOne Arcade) was a gaming service run by RealNetworks that sold casual-style computer games to individual users, launched in 2001. Its purpose was to let users download demo versions of games, and optionally buy the full v ...
published an iPhone OS game based on the show entitled ''Million Dollar Password 2009 Edition''. In December 2008, the game was released on some
mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
platforms and, in March 2009, RealArcade released a version of the game for PCs and Macs. ''Million Dollar Password 2009 Edition'' was released on
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...
in July 2009, distributed by Encore USA.
Andrews McMeel Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (formerly Andrews, McMeel and Parker (1975–1986) and Andrews and McMeel (1986–1997)) is a company that publishes books, calendars, and related toys. It is a part of Andrews McMeel Universal, which comprises AM ...
published a 2010 day-to-day
calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...
based upon the program in July 2009.


Ratings


U.S. standard ratings

In the following summary, "
rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of a metric (e.g. quality, quantity, a combination of both,...). Rating or rating system may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness ...
" is the percentage of all households with televisions that tuned to the show, and " share" is the percentage of all televisions in use at that time that are tuned in. "18–49" is the percentage of all adults aged 18–49 tuned into the show. "Viewers" is the number of viewers, in millions, watching at the time. "Rank" is how well the show did compared to other TV shows aired that week.


Season 1 (2008)


Season 2 (2008–2009)


References


External links


Official website (via Internet Archive)

Betty White graces "Million Dollar Password"
* {{IMDb title, 1224277, Million Dollar Password CBS game shows 2000s American game shows 2008 American television series debuts 2009 American television series endings Television series by Fremantle (company) American English-language television shows