Millionaire/Quotes & Catchphrases

Opening spiels
Series Premiere, August 16, 1999: From the four corners of the continent, we have flown them to New York City. People just like you, who called our phone number, dreaming of instant riches. Will one of them seize this day? Have the knowledge and the courage to change the course of their lives in one short evening? Starting tonight, and every night for the next two weeks, join us from New York City as we play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire!

November 7, 1999 Return: On every great quiz show, it's been said there is one moment when the contestant either wins everything or loses everything. These are the unforgettable faces from the first historic series of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. And these are their greatest moments. Real people, making the biggest financial decisions of their lives. Under real pressure. In front of millions. They captured the imagination of a nation. And so, starting tonight, the phenomenon returns. Over the next 15 nights, 150 new contestants from all over the country will be vying to make it to this Hot Seat. There'll be more drama, more unforgettable faces, and more of those great moments. Tonight, and every night for the next two weeks, join us from New York as we play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire!

November 1999-Fall 2000 Primetime: Last time/night on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire... (clips from the last episode of the show) Now, join us from New York, for (night [insert number] of) Who Wants to Be a Millionaire!

Catchphrases
"Thank you! Thanks very much! Thank you very much everybody, and welcome to the premiere of the biggest, most exciting, most dramatic television show that I, or you, or anyone else has ever seen! Every night, for the next two weeks, real people, just like you, who called our phone number, will be playing for an unprecedented cash prize of one million dollars! We are terribly excited about this show! The technology, the music, the lights, the human drama! Even this audience gets us crazy! What a night this is going to be! So now, let's meet our first 10 contestants on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire! And they are..." - Regis Philbin (on the August 1999 premiere of Millionaire)

"Right now, we've got 10 new contestants ready to go. Who are they tonight? Let's find out, (and) they are... (Insert 10 contestants of the night)" - Regis Philbin

"Welcome everybody, and congratulations on making it this far! In a moment, a question and four answers will appear on your screens. The one who puts those answers in the correct order, in the fastest time will be our next player. - Regis Philbin during Fastest Finger (1999-2000)

"Since we have a visually-impaired contestant on tonight's show, here's how it works: I will read the question and four answers aloud, first. Then, as usual, the question and four answers will appear on your screens. The one who puts those answers in the correct order, in the fastest time will be our next player. - Regis Philbin during Fastest Finger in the event of a blind or disabled contestant. (1999-2000)

"Audience, may we ask you for complete silence, please. Thank you (very much)! And here's the question! (insert question, then four possible answers)." - Regis Philbin before the first Fastest Finger begins

"And now, here's/here comes the next Fastest Finger question of the night! (insert question, then four possible answers)." - Regis Philbin before subsequent Fastest Finger questions in an episode

"Time's up (,everybody)! Let's see the correct order starting in (insert beginning order). (insert correct answers). That's the correct order, now let's see who got it right and in the fastest time. (And It's) (insert winner)!" - Regis Philbin after Fastest Finger is complete.

"Since we have a tie, here's how we do it: We play another Fastest Finger question, this time for (tied contestants) only. (Tied contestants), here's your question. - Regis Philbin during the tiebreaker Fastest Finger question (1999-2000)

"None of our contestants got the Fastest Finger question correct. So here's what we're gonna do. We'll try again with another question." - Regis Philbin if no one gets the Fastest Finger question correct (1999-2002)

"You've already won (insert question amount from last night's show) You're just (insert number of questions left)/15 questions away from winning $1 million. The rules are simple/Here's how we play: The more questions you get right, the more money you'll win. Once you reach the $1,000 or the $32,000 level, you're guaranteed to leave here with at least that much money. You have three lifelines to help you out: 50:50, where the computer will take away two wrong answers, leaving the one wrong answer and the correct answer. You can Ask the Audience, which the audience will vote on their keypads to think what the answer is. And, finally, you can Phone-A-Friend (sponsored by our good friends here at AT&T), where you call anyone anywhere in America to think what the answer is." - Regis Philbin explaining the rules of Millionaire (1999-2000)

"Remember, if you go all the way (to the top) tonight, you'll win (insert Bonus Jackpot)." - Regis Philbin explaining the contestant going all the way to the top tonight to win more than $1 million Bonus in 2001

"To play along with (insert contestant), log on to abc.com, click on the 'Enhanced TV' logo, and play against everybody else at home using ABC's Enhanced TV." - Regis Philbin telling the home viewers who want to play along with the contestant using ABC's Enhanced TV (2000-2002)

"You know (about) the rules, you know (about) the Lifelines. (50:50, Ask The Audience, and Phone a Friend). Are you ready to play? (Contestant: Yes/Yeah!) Audience, are you ready (to play)? (audience cheers and applauds) So/Okay/Alright let's play (Who Wants to be a) Millionaire." - Regis Philbin/Meredith Vieira (to the next contestant knowing about the rules and the Lifelines on their way to the $1 million run.)

"You're just 15 questions away from winning $1 million, and when you get to the $25,000 level, you'll get our fourth lifeline, Switch the Question." - Meredith Vieira explaining the rules of Millionaire (2004-2008)

"You're just 15 questions away from winning $1 million, and when you get to the $1,000/$5,000 level, you'll get our fourth lifeline, Ask the Expert." - Meredith Vieira and Regis Philbin explaining the rules of Millionaire (2008-2010)

"You're just 14 questions away from $500 all up the way to that $1 million [prize]. Every question you answered correctly moves you one step closer to that top prize. Remember at anytime you can always walk away with the money you earned up to that point. If you give me an incorrect answer you walk away with nothing, until you get to the threshold of $5,000 then again at $50,000. You have your three lifelines. The audience can help you with the question, 50:50, I'll take away two of the incorrect answers, and your plus one." - Chris Harrison explaining the rules of Millionaire (2015-present)

"I am so excited to be here. Welcome to the new weekday version of Millionaire. (audience cheers and applauds) Okay, you're gonna immediately notice that there are two very different changes here. First of all, me. I'm Meredith Vieira, and secondly, there are no longer any ten contestants who are waiting to play Fastest Finger because there is no Fastest Finger anymore, it is gone. Also, I don't think I've ever seen such a good-lookin' audience! (audience cheers and applauds) Gorgeous! Gorgeous bunch! But... but right now, I only have eyes for Paul Miller, a New York City firefighter and our first contestant. Welcome to you, Paul. Great to have you here. (Paul: Great to be here. Thank you.) (audience applauds) Well, you know that Fastest Finger, you know what, I hate it, because I had to do it once on the celebrity edition of Millionaire with Reege... I was the next-to-last person picked! I was so bad, it was awful! So you don't have to worry about that, see? (Paul: That was my greatest fear.) So now you're not nervous, right? (Paul: No. I run into burning buildings for a living, so this is... (chuckles)) This could be worse, Paul, I don't know. (Paul: We'll see.) And I also understand that if you ever quit your day job, you could be a midwife, is that right? (Paul: Uh, yeah possibly. I've helped deliver three kids.) And we wanna deliver you a million dollars. That would be just great. Okay Paul? (Paul: That'd be great.) (audience applauds) Paul... the questions may be a little tougher, but the rules are still the same. You are just 15 questions away from winning $1,000,000, and you still have those three lifelines: 50/50, Ask the Audience, and you can Phone-a-Friend. And if you look out in this audience, everyone here is your friend today. Everybody wants you to do great. So you ready, Paul? (Paul: I'm ready.) Ready, audience? (audience cheers and applauds) Let's play Millionaire." - Meredith Vieira, first episode of syndicated Millionaire, 2002

"Hello, and welcome to a new season of Millionaire, and this is Millionaire like you have never seen it before. I want you to listen to this. (the sound of the ticking clock plays) That is the dreaded clock that we have added to gameplay on every question, and that means that Millionaire is gonna be faster, more exciting, and much more nerve-wracking than ever before. But hey, this is still the only place I know where every contestant can walk away with a million dollars, and that's the kind of game we like! (audience cheers and applauds)" - Meredith Vieira, first episode of the clock-format, 2008

"Hello, and welcome to a brand new season of Millionaire! And boy, we've made some great changes around here! First of all, what's missing, audience? Audience: THE HOT SEAT! Meredith: Yes, you are so smart! The hot seat has been retired after eight seasons, but we've added something. All of our questions will be up on this beautiful new screen!" - Meredith Vieira, first episode of the Shuffle era episode.

"15/30/45 seconds on the clock" - Meredith Vieira and Regis Philbin on questions 1-14

"Alright, the million dollar question is usually 45 seconds (on the clock) plus you banked (insert banked time) so you will have (insert total time) to think about this question and here it is. - Meredith Vieira and Regis Philbin on the million dollar question

"Here is the money for round 1! Computer, please randomize the money! The money is all hidden, here are the categories for round 1. Computer, please randomize the questions!" - Meredith Vieira and Cedric the Entertainer at the start of the game (2010-2014)

"This is our money tree. 14 questions spread over two rounds from $100-$1,000,000! We start with round 1 from $100-$25,000 in which we randomized the money and questions for you. (If you make it to Round 2, you'll be 4 questions away from $1,000,000! And you have your lifelines: Ask The Audience, Jump the Question and (new for this season,) Plus One)" - Terry Crews at the start of the game (season 14)

"Listen, say hello to our Millionaire money tree. 14 questions spread over 2 rounds with money values grown from $100 all the way up to $1,000,000! You know how this works. Round 1 has 10 possible questions arranging from $100 to $25,000. We've randomly shuffled the questions and we're shuffling up the money values too, but if you should make it to Round 2, you will be just 4 questions away from the million dollars. Now, let's talk about your lifelines. You've got Ask the Audience, you can/got Jump the Question, where if you get stuck on a question, you can just jump over it, but you do not get to add that money to your bank, and, new for this season, we have a/the Plus One, it help you if you brought someone with you today down here to help you answer your/the question. Who did you bring with you today? Contestant: I've brought with me my (insert family member and its name/hometown/occupation) All right, hi. Are you ready? Contestant: I'm ready! Let's play Millionaire!" - Terry Crews at the start of the game

"Audience, we need some help for (insert player)/(insert player) needs your help. If you're ready, on your keypads, using A, B, C, or D, please vote now." - Regis Philbin about Ask the Audience Lifeline

"Audience, we need some help for (insert player)/(insert player) needs your help. If you're ready/on your keypads, vote now." - Meredith Vieira about Ask the Audience Lifeline

"Audience, we need some help for (insert player)/(insert player) needs your help. Pick up your keypads and vote now." - Terry Crews about Ask the Audience Lifeline

"Audience, we need some help for (insert player)/(insert player) needs your help. If you would pick up those keypads [and] enter your votes now." - Chris Harrison about Ask the Audience Lifeline

"50:50. Computer, take away two of the wrong answers, leaving one wrong answer and the correct/right answer." - Regis Philbin about the 50:50 Lifeline

"50:50. Computer, take away two of the wrong answers." - Meredith Vieira about the 50:50 Lifeline

"50:50. Can you, take away two of the incorrect answers." - Chris Harrison about the 50:50 Lifeline

"(Insert caller's name). Okay, our friends at AT&T will help you get (insert caller's name) on the line, and see what he/she has to say. (Phone ringing) CALLER: Hello? REGIS: Hello, (insert caller)? CALLER: Yes? REGIS: Yes, hi, it's Regis Philbin from (ABC's) Who Wants to be a Millionaire. CALLER: Yes. REGIS: I know you can't see us right now, but (insert player) is going for (insert money ladder amount). So He's/She's gonna come on the line, read you the question and the four possible answers. One of them is the correct answer. So, the next voice will be (insert player). You'll have 30 seconds, and your time starts now!" - Regis Philbin about the Phone-A-Friend Lifeline in some early episodes

"(insert caller's name). Okay, our friends at AT&T will help us/We're gonna get (insert caller's name) on the line. (Phone ringing) CALLER: Hello? MEREDITH: Hey/hi (insert caller), it's Meredith (Vieira) from Millionaire, how are you? CALLER: Good. MEREDITH: Okay, I'm sitting here with (insert contestant) and he's/she's going for (insert amount of money). He/she needs your help with a question. CALLER: Okay, yes. MEREDITH: (insert contestant), you have 30 seconds, and your time starts now!" - Meredith Vieira during Phone-A-Friend lifeline

“But before we start the game you know that you have three lifelines, what you're going to notice here and you already know it, the other contestants know, but for the sake of the audience here and the audience at home, there has been a slight change in gameplay that I want to explain to you folks. On the board we no longer have Phone-A-Friend as a lifeline. I want to explain to you why. Technology has changed as you know over the years and we feel that it has compromised the integrity of that lifeline in the intent because often when a contestant calls somebody, a friend at home, who do they get? They get Mr. Internet, and we feel that it isn't fair that some people have access to a computer and some don't, because the game is really not about that, it's about what's inside somebody's head. ” - Meredith Vieira explains why we no longer have Phone-A-Friend

"How much money did (insert player) jump over?" - used during the Shuffle format.

"Is That Your Final Answer?" - Host

"Final (Answer)?" - Host

"YOU JUST WON A MILLION DOLLARS!" - Host

"You're gonna face/I”m gonna ask you the next question that (previous contestant's name) would have faced, had he/she not walked away/lost. [For him/her, it would have been worth (insert amount). For you, it's worth $1,000.] If you get it right, you will win $1,000." - Meredith Vieira, Terry Crews, and Chris Harrison announcing the rules for "Thousandaire." Cedric the Entertainer did not use this line.

"I am gonna ask you a question. If you get it right, you will win $1,000." - Chris Harrison's alternate version of "Thousandaire" rules.

"(Alarm Sounds) That sound means...
 * ...we're out of time for tonight


 * ...we're/we are out of time for today.
 * ...that's our show for today.
 * ...that's the end of our show.
 * ...time is up.

REST OF SPIEL A: (insert contestant) will be back here tomorrow/(Insert day) night, and joining him/her will be 10 new contestants (who have flown in) from all over the country, and they are... (Insert 10 contestants on the next program)" - Regis Philbin when time runs out during the middle of the money ladder on the way to the $1 million run (1999-2002)

REST OF SPIEL B: (insert contestant) will be back tomorrow/on Monday/next time to look at the $XXX,000 question. - Meredith Vieira and Chris Harrison

REST OF SPIEL C: (insert contestant) will be back tomorrow/on Monday/next time to play for $XXX,000. - Meredith Vieira and Chris Harrison

REST OF SPIEL D: (insert contestant) will be back tomorrow/on Monday/next time to play more ''Millionaire! - ''Shuffle era and sometimes used in the Harrison era.

REST OF SPIEL E: (insert contestant) will be back with us next time! - Cedric the Entertainer.

"Thank you, thank you so much. Everybody yes, we are back and tonight for all this week, we're going to find out why we are calling this Super Millionaire. Every contestant is sitting this hot seat right there is going to playing for a staggering ten million dollars. We are introducing the two new lifelines and it's simply fantastic, one is called Double Dip, it's a intriguing new style of Millionaire lifeline and then there's the Three Wise Men and there they are, requested backstage their identities shrouded in mystery three brilliant minds ready to mentally leap into the rescue of our players". - Regis Philbin (2004)

"I've been waiting a long time looking forward to saying this for a long long time. You are 15 questions away from winning $10 million. Just take a look at all the zeros here. No more weakly $100 questions, no sir. We start right out at $1,000 and five correct answers later you will leave here with less than $5,000, five more correct answers and you'll will be holding a check for $100,000 and to help you get through all of this, we have your three trustee lifelines, remember them, fifty-fifty, ask the audience, and you can phone a friend and you'll enter a brand new dimension of this game time, listen to me, where you'll be playing for millions and millions of dollars". - Regis Philbin explaining the rules in Super Millionaire (2004)

"Go for the gold. This is what we've been waiting for and you've been waiting for this too. Here's a check for $100,000. From now on, this is all uncharted territory. No one has been here before so we're going to hope that you could go all the way but what a wonderful start to get those two additional lifelines and it's time now to enter the next dimension of this game. I want you to look at it very carefully now. It's just five I think. You are 5 questions away from $10,000,000. The next question is worth $500,000, then a million, then $2.5 million, then $5 million, then the ultimate prize, $10,000,000. Huge rewards and huge risks, my friend, and then the two new lifelines kick in, the Three Wise Men and Double Dip and we can reveal for the first time the identities of those Three Wise Men standing by to help you if you get stuck on a question. (insert names and descriptions of the Three Wise Men) Thank you all of the wise ones joining us, nice to have you here. Now we're going to shut off the audio and the video feed. When you need it, the help will be there, they'll get 30 seconds to see the question, talk to you about that, hopefully come up with the right answer. Your second new lifeline is called Double Dip, which will give you two shots at answering the question, but beware once you confirm that you want to use it, you can't walk away from it. You must answer the question. - Regis Philbin explaining the new dimension of Super Millionaire (2004)

"You are not allowed to walk away with Double Dip" - Meredith Vieira said to the contestant deciding to walk away.

Contestant Plugs
"If you want to be a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Pick up a touch-tone phone and call 1-900-933-9391. The total cost of the call is $1.50. You have to correctly answer several multi-part questions of increasing difficulty. If you're fast enough, you'll qualify for a free telephone playoff. If you're one of the winners, you can be a contestant. The phone lines are open 24 hours! Call us!"

"If you're sitting at home thinking "I can be a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? This is your last chance! Lines close at Noon eastern tomorrow! All you have to do is call 1-900-933-9391. The total cost of the call is $1.50. You have to correctly answer several multi-part questions of increasing difficulty. If you're fast enough, you'll qualify for a free telephone playoff. If you're one of the winners, you can be a contestant. Don't all call at once!" - 1999 Contestant Plug

"To qualify to become a contestant for our (Month) shows, pick up a touchtone phone between the hours 6pm and 2am Eastern Time and call 1-800-433-8321. There's a limit of one call per person per contest day. The phone lines close (Date) at 2am Eastern Time." - Contestant plug for rest of ABC Run.

"Fifteen questions, One million dollars! It's that easy! To become a contestant on our show go to millionaire.tv and find out how!" - Contestant plug for syndication run.

Taglines
"From New York, everybody, Good Night!" - Regis Philbin

"From New York, everybody, Bye-Bye [for now]." - Meredith Vieira

"From New York, everybody, I'm Cedric the Entertainer. Watch your wallet!" - Cedric the Entertainer

"That's our show for today! We'll see you next time on Millionaire!" - Terry Crews

"For everyone who has been a part of this one, I'm Chris Harrison, we'll/we will see you next time!" - Chris Harrison

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