ABC Isn’t Gonna Party Like It’s 1999 With These ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ Ratings
Ah, 1999: Napster launched, Jon Stewart replaced Craig Kilborn as host of “The Daily Show” and this writer graduated high school. (Shout-out Howell Rebels!) And in the summer, ABC released a new game show with an eye-catching title: “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Originally intended as just a few weeks of specials hosted by Regis Philbin, “Millionaire” became a phenomenon. On Aug. 16, 1999, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” debuted in ABC primetime to a 3.71 rating among adults 18-49 and 10 million total viewers. By Sunday, Aug. 22, the show was practically pulling in a 6.0 rating ad 15 million viewers — and it didn’t stop there. The following Sunday, Aug. 29, the initial run of “Millionaire” concluded with a whopping 8.71 rating and 22.4 million viewers. By the way, if you were wondering, that was all live viewing. Back then, there were no DVRs and no on-demand programming — and VCR viewing didn’t count in Nielsen’s averages. Twenty years later, on April 8, 2020, “Millionaire” once again debuted. The new version is hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and uses celebrity contestants playing for charity. The comeback attempt opened with a fraction of its audience from the pre-Netflix...
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