1,500 times “Who Will Be a Millionaire?”: Gunter Gauch looks forward to the anniversary

Tuesday 1 June 2021

1,500 times “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”
Günther Jauch is looking forward to the anniversary

If this continues, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” At some point, “Lindenstrasse”. After all, “only” 1,758 episodes of the previous permanent ARD hit were fired. On the one hand, Günther Jauch invites you to take part in guessing for the 1500’s – with a special surprise show.

Gunter Gauch does not know what to expect on Thursday, the 1500th anniversary of the broadcast of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” (WWM) with a big surprise show. “I actually prefer to stay in control of the broadcasts,” the moderator admits in RTL Chat. However, the principle applies: “because he does not know what is happening.” So he has no idea which candidates or guests he will meet. “It’ll be exciting,” Gauch said.

The attraction of the show manager is precisely the unpredictability of this special edition of WWM. “You have to be prepared for anything or even expect the most embarrassing scenes of 21 years of WWM to be shown again,” he explains.

His patent prescription for dealing with errors is simple: “Admit it quickly and live with the mistake. It has proven itself in the past.” But television is one of the few workplaces where customers are generally happy with mistakes. He also believes: “There is nothing better than TV glitches that have actually occurred spontaneously.”

No end in sight

For Gauch, the fact that quiz show has been running successfully on television for more than 20 years is due to this concept. “It’s simple and understandable to everyone. You can start and stop the program at any time.” In addition, everyone can verify their own knowledge. He is sure that “if you can answer the 500,000 euros question at home, you sleep with a different feeling than if you were losing 500 euros”.

Moderator rejects changes to formatting. “Of course you should always be open to innovations. At the same time, there are programs that resent it if it harms the core of their brand. I am convinced that WWM belongs to this type of program,” Jauch warns. “For example, thinking about an extra Joker idea” is entirely possible for him.

Jauch leads the competition show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Since September 3, 1999. She rose through the format to the absolute star of the show. Will that change at some point? He assures me that he will continue to curate the show “as long as the viewers, and I too, continue to enjoy it.” And yes, he still enjoys it. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have presented 1,500 programs in 21 years,” Gauch said.

“Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? – 1500 Jubilee Broadcast” can be seen Thursday 3 June at 8:15 pm on RTL and also Available from TVNOW. There is also more information about the offer At RTL.de.