Wikipedia

The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime (Australian game show)

For the unrelated American game show, see The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime.

The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime (stylized as $Million Chance of a Lifetime) is an hour-long prime time quiz show that aired in Australia. It was later adapted for an American audience as It's Your Chance of a Lifetime, so as not to be confused with the American game show that used the title The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime.

The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime
GenreQuiz show
Created byStephen Leahy
Presented byFrank Warrick (1999)[1]
Sandy Roberts (2000)[1]
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes26
Production
Running time60 minutes (Including commercials)
Production companyAction Time
Original release
NetworkSeven Network
Release1999 (1999) –
2000 (2000)
Related
It's Your Chance of a Lifetime

Overview

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The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime aired on the Seven Network from 1999 to 2000. Seven began production on the show when rival network Nine Network announced production of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which promised the largest cash prize on Australian quiz show history.

Chance of a Lifetime was produced in-house by Seven. It was a knowledge based quiz. The million dollar prize was never won; only smaller amounts of money were awarded to contestants.

Hosts

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Frank Warrick first hosted the show in 1999. For the second and last season, Seven personality and sportscaster Sandy Roberts was Warrick's replacement.

Rules of the game

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A solo player competed for a chance to win over $1,000,000 in the form of an annuity, doing so by answering ten questions. The first question was dubbed the "credit card question", with a correct answer eliminating any credit card bill debt the contestant had rung up (the bill itself was shredded onstage).

The next question was worth $5,000, and a contestant had to answer correctly to advance. If correct, the contestant would have a maximum of eight questions to answer, being forced to bet at least half of what they had at that particular point in the game. The catch was that each question came from one of ten different categories, and the contestant never knew where they would come from. However, the contestant was shown the category before the question was asked, so they would know and could bet accordingly.

Along the way, each contestant had two "Second Chances". One "Second Chance" allowed the contestant to switch the question for one in a category of their choice, and the other allowed the question to be made multiple choice. Once a contestant reached the third level of questions, a "Last Chance" was awarded, allowing the contestant to choose one of the two options for a second time.

A contestant could stop after any correct answer, but an incorrect answer deducted the amount of the wager and ended the game for the contestant. Even a miss on the credit card question ended the game. (If the contestant answered the credit card question correctly, their debt was eliminated for good even if they ended on the game on zero.)

A possible $1,280,000 was available to a contestant.

Ratings

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Chance aired on Monday nights on Seven. Ratings began to slide after the first episode aired. The show ran for two seasons, and was eventually moved to weeknights at 5.30 pm before the nightly news broadcast; it was then Seven began the practice of airing game shows as a lead-in to its news bulletins, which continues to this day. It was eventually cancelled, with weaker ratings and excessive production costs cited as reasons for cancellation.

International versions

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Most of the versions were distributed by ITV Studios except for the Australian version.

Country Name Host Network Date premiered Prize
  Australia (original format)[2] The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime Frank Warrick
Sandy Roberts 		Seven 1999–2000 A$1,280,000
  Czech Republic Kvíz Show Vladimír Čech TV Prima 2004–2005 1,000,000 Kč
  Germany[3] Die Quiz Show Jörg Pilawa
Christian Clerici
Matthias Opdenhövel 		Sat.1 2000–2004 DM 512,000
€256,000
  Hungary[4] Multimilliomos – Most vagy soha! Gabriella Jakupcsek TV2 2000–2005 51,200,000 Ft.
  India Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke Govinda SET 2001–2002 ₹20,000,000
  Indonesia Chance of a Lifetime Dede Yusef SCTV 2004 Rp.1,536,000,000
  Italy[5] Quiz Show Amadeus Rai Uno 2000–2002 £it.512,000,000
€256,000
  Lebanon لمين الملايين؟
Lamin El malayin? 		Serge Zarqa MTV 2001–2002 £L100,000,000
لمين الملايين جونيور
Lamin El malayin Junior 		Karol Sakr 2002
  Poland[6] Życiowa szansa Krzysztof Ibisz Polsat 2000–2002 PLN 1,000,000
  Slovakia SuperKvíz Peter Kočiš (2004)
Ján Gordulič (2005) 		Jednotka 2004 1,000,000 Sk.
SuperKvíz Junior 2004–2005
  Slovenia Življenjska priložnost Mito Trefalt
Borut Veselko 		Kanal A 2000–2002 1,000,000 SIT
  United States It's Your Chance of a Lifetime Gordon Elliott FOX 2000 $1,290,000

Versions have also aired in Norway, France, Israel and other countries.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Terrace, Vincent (2012). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). McFarland. p. 518. ISBN 9780786486410.
  2. ^ Terrace, Vincent (2012). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 518. ISBN 9780786486410.
  3. ^ Die Quizshow auf SAT 1 mit Christian Clerici. Archived from the original on 10 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ "Jakupcsek lenyomja Vágót?". 15 February 2001.
  5. ^ "Quiz Show – L'occasione di una vita". Archived from the original on 29 April 2014.
  6. ^ "Życiowa szansa znika". Wirtualne Media (in Polish). www.wirtualnemedia.pl. 24 September 2002. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
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