Bad Ratings And Bidenflation Destroyed ‘Big Money’ Game Shows

A quarter-century ago, a new show revolutionized the television landscape in the United States. “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” which debuted for American audiences on Aug. 16, 1999, revitalized both a sagging ABC television network and the game show genre in general.

Just over 25 years later, much has changed. While “Millionaire” has returned to the network landscape with a series of celebrity episodes, both network television and game shows in general have diminished. Put simply, fewer eyeballs watching any particular show mean smaller prizes for contestants.

The Incredible Shrinking Prize Budget

A dozen years ago, I went on the syndicated version of “Millionaire” and came away with a six-figure prize. While not common during the show’s syndicated run, “Millionaire” did give away big sums fairly regularly. Even if no “Millionaire” contestant won the title prize during the show’s last decade in syndication, at least five contestants won a $250,000 prize, and at least eight more won a $100,000 prize, during the season in which I appeared.

Compare those outcomes to some new network shows debuting this summer. “Lucky 13,” also airing on ABC, features a $1,000,000 prize, yes. But to win said jackpot, a contestant must answer 13 true-false questions correctly AND be willing to wager that he answered all 13 questions correctly, knowing that a single miss will leave him with nothing. 

If a “Lucky 13” contestant is not risky (or foolish) enough to make such a gamble, he can walk away with at most $125,000; most leave with far less. Among the first eight contestants, one walked away with $100,000, one with half that amount, three more with sums ranging from $3,750 to $12,500, and three left with nothing.

In “The Quiz with Balls,” a new Fox game show, a family can win up to $75,000 in the main game and augment that total to $100,000 by finding all five correct responses to the bonus round question. Likewise, the American version of “The 1% Club,” a Fox production of a British concept, features a maximum prize for a single contestant of $100,000 per show.

To put things in perspective: Two hour-long network game shows offer as their maximum prize what a half-hour syndicated program gave away at least a dozen times in a single season 12 years ago.

Diffused Media Landscape

The reasons for the diminishing prize budgets seem obvious when one examines the shows’ ratings — or, to be more precise, the lack thereof. A quarter-century ago, “Millionaire” received 15 million viewers during its initial week-long run in August 1999 and grew to average nearly double that amount over the entire 1999-2000 season.

By contrast, “Lucky 13” attracted the highest audience of the three new game shows mentioned above, with a high of 2.8 million viewers for its second episode. Neither “The Quiz with Balls” nor “The 1% Club” have reached the 2 million mark among episodes that have aired to date, meaning they have a fraction of the reach of the original “Millionaire.”

With the recent explosion of cable networks and streaming options, media outlets struggle to attract the kind of eyeballs that can command top dollars from advertisers. These days, only pro football games and rare special events (e.g. presidential debates) attract the tens of millions of viewers that “Millionaire” could command in 1999. Smaller ratings mean less advertising revenue, leading television executives to stretch their budgets by offering smaller prizes.

End of an Era

Occasional big jackpots still happen; celebrities Ike and Alan Barinholtz won the top prize on “Millionaire” in an episode that aired the week of the show’s 25th anniversary. Of course, for ABC’s purposes, it didn’t hurt that they, like all celebrity contestants this season, were playing for charity, meaning that the network could likely write off the payouts for tax purposes.

What inflation has not eaten away when it comes to “big money” game shows — $1,000,000 today has the same buying power as $531,251.99 in August 1999, making the show’s current title more like “Who Wants to Be a Half-Millionaire?” — the changing media landscape has. In many ways, the cancellation of the syndicated “Millionaire” five years ago marked the appropriate passing of an era of super-sized game shows.

That said, game shows still have a presence on and a role to play in television. It just seems less likely that contestants will win life-changing sums of money in the process. But as someone with experience in the subject, going on a game show is a lot of fun, win or lose — and it can change your life in ways you would never imagine. That alone makes the effort worthwhile.

Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, a policy consulting firm based in Washington, and author of the book “The Case Against Single Payer.” He appeared in the 1995 “Jeopardy!” Teen Tournament and is on Twitter: @chrisjacobsHC.