August 16, 1999: The U.S. Version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Premieres

August 16, 1999: The U.S. version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? premieres on ABC, hosted by Regis Philbin, and based on the British show that premiered a year earlier. It becomes a huge phenomenon. The U.S. version was developed by Englishman Michael Davies, who, along with Roger Bennett, now does the Men In Blazers soccer TV show.

A contestant faced questions with 4 possible answers, labeled "A," "B," "C" and "D." The questions came in blocks of 5, and started out easy: $100, $200, $300, $500 and $1,000. If the contestant got to $1,000, he or she could keep that amount, no matter what: If the contestant got a subsequent answer wrong, they would go back down to $1,000.

The questions, at least in theory, got progressively more difficult, with levels of $2,000, $4,000, $8,000, $16,000 and $32,000. If the contestant got to $32,000, that became the new threshold: A wrong answer would drop them back to that level. By this point, no matter how long a contestant took to get the answer, Regis would ask him, "Is that your final answer?"

Then came the last 5 questions: $64,000, $125,000, $250,000, $500,000, and $1 million. It was the 1st American game show to offer a top prize of at least a million dollars, and that caught the public imagination.

The last game show to really capture the public imagination on that level was The $64,000 Question, in the 1950s. That show allowed a contestant to stick to a single subject, and allowed a contestant reaching the final question to bring on an expert in their chosen subject. Since Millionaire touched on all subjects, contestants were allowed 3 "lifelines": They could poll the audience, which usually led to one potential answer being clear; they could do a "50:50," which would reduce the possible answers from 4 to 2; or they could "Phone a Friend." Each contestant was allowed 5 potential phone-friends, usually spread out over subjects of expertise, but could only choose one.

The 1st million-dollar winner was John Carpenter, a 31-year-old resident of Connecticut -- with some irony, an agent for the Internal Revenue Service. On November 19, 1999, he got to the last question, which, in hindsight, was not that hard: "Which of these U.S. Presidents appeared on the television series Laugh-In?" The episode in question was in 1968, during Carpenter's lifetime but not during his memory, but the incident is fairly well-known to people who knew about Richard Nixon.

Carpenter remains the only contestant in the show's history to get to the last question without having used any lifelines. On the last question, he used the Phone a Friend, to call his father -- not to ask him the question, but to tell his father that he was going to win the million bucks. Which he did.

The timing for the show was great: The American economy had never been better. It became one of the first TV shows that bars would have "watch parties" for, complete with discounted drinks, like a Happy Hour. It was so popular that ABC began running it 3 times a week. Regis was already 68 years old, an age at which most people are retired. But it was this sort of luck that enabled him, given his previous work, to become the person with the most hours on television in human history.

Had the show premiered a year later, when "the dot-com bubble" was bursting, it might have tanked. But, by then, it had generated enough of a life of its own that it survived not just the 2001-04 recession, but the even nastier one of 2007-10.

Millionaire (it was often referred to with just one word) was hosted on ABC by Regis until 2002, then in syndication by Meredith Vieira until 2013, Cedric the Entertainer for a year, Terry Crews for a year, and Chris Harrison for 4 years. It went on hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, then was brought back, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

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August 16, 1999 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-0 at Yankee Stadium. Roger Clemens nearly pitched a 4-hit shutout, outpitching Eric Milton, but needed Mariano Rivera to get the last out. The Yankee runs came in the 8th inning, on a single by Shane Spencer and a sacrifice fly by Scott Brosius. Derek Jeter went 0-for-3.

* The New York Mets beat the San Diego Padres, 4-3 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Edgardo Alfonzo hit a home run in the top of the 10th inning. Mike Piazza and Rickey Henderson also homered for the Mets. Tony Gwynn went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-5 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-5 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Ken Griffey Jr. went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Alex Rodriguez went 1-for-3 with a home run, 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 13-5 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-2 at Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Anaheim Angels, 6-1 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Houston Astros beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. José Lima pitched 8 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, and Billy Wagner finished the 2-hit shutout.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Colorado Rockies, 14-6 at Coors Field in Denver. Greg Maddux was the winning pitcher, although it was hardly his best work. Eddie Pérez went 2-for-4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs. José Hernández went 2-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Chicago Cubs, 10-3 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Sammy Sosa hit his 47th home run of the season. He ended with 63, while Mark McGwire of the Cardinals, who did not hit one on this day, finished with 65. Both were exposed as steroid cheats.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Montreal Expos, 7-4 at Candlestick Park (then known as 3Com Park) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds went 2-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs.

* And the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals were not scheduled.