Million Dollar Money Drop

Million Dollar Money Drop
Genre	Game show
Developed by	Endemol
Presented by	Kevin Pollak
Theme music composer	ispy music
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	12
Production
Location(s)	The Culver studios
Running time	60 minutes (including adverts)
Broadcast
Original channel	Fox
Picture format	720p (HDTV)
Original run	December 20, 2010 – February 1, 2011
Chronology
Related shows	The Million Pound Drop Live
External links
Website

Million Dollar Money Drop is a game show which aired on Fox in the United States and Canada. It is based on the U.K. series The Million Pound Drop Live. However, unlike the original UK version, it was not broadcast live, and there were several changes to the format. The show premiered on December 20, 2010, and is hosted by Kevin Pollak.^[1]

On February 21, 2011, buzzerblog.com announced a potential second season to air in the summer along with a board game as well.

On May 18, 2011, TVSeriesFinale.com^[2] reported that FOX had cancelled Million Dollar Money Drop and would not be producing a second season. However, more than 15 different international versions of the program will continue to air in other countries. There has been no comment from FOX as to why Million Dollar Money Drop was cancelled, though there's speculation it was due to its initial low ratings.

Game format

A team of two people with a pre-existing relationship is presented with $1,000,000 U.S. in $20 bills, banded in 50 bundles of $20,000 each.^[3] The team must risk the entire amount on each of seven multiple-choice questions.

For each question, the contestants choose one of two categories, then indicate which answer(s) they wish to risk their money on by moving the bundles of cash onto a row of trap doors, termed "drops," each of which corresponds to one answer. However, they must always keep at least one drop "clear" with no money on it. In addition, six of the seven questions have a time limit; any money that is not placed on an answer when time runs out will be lost.

Once the money is in place, the trap doors for the incorrect answers are opened, and the cash on them falls out of sight and is lost. The contestants then continue the game using the cash they had placed on the correct answer. They get to keep whatever money is left after the seventh question; if they lose everything before reaching this point, the game ends immediately and they leave with nothing.

Quick Change

The contestants may use one "Quick Change" during the game, on any question except the seventh. This feature allows them an extra 30 seconds to distribute their cash among the trap doors. If none of the trapdoors are left open and the contestants still have the Quick Change, it will automatically be used. Contestants are not allowed to use the Quick Change on the final question because it has no time limit. The Quick Change was later implemented on the German version in early 2011.

Final Fact

For the seventh question, once the contestants have placed their money on one of the trap doors, the host reveals a piece of information about the answers. They then have 60 seconds to switch their answer or leave the money where it is.

Broadcast history

Ratings

For the twelve episodes aired, the average viewership was 5.03 million.^{[citation needed]}

Contestant winnings

Nathan Moore and Lana McKissack are the most-successful pair, having won $300,000 on the episode that aired January 18, 2011.^{[citation needed]} Twelve contestant pairs have finished with $0 or have been eliminated from the game.^{[citation needed]}

Controversy

On the very first episode, Okoye and Mayti lost $800,000 on a question that asked, "Which of these was sold in stores first?" The three possible answers were: Macintosh computer, Sony Walkman, and Post-It notes. Gabe placed the bulk of the team's money on the answer "Post-It notes." The correct answer was then revealed to be Sony Walkman.^[4]

Later, viewers began to dispute the accuracy of the question because of information on the Internet that indicated Post-It Notes were "launched" or "introduced" under the name "Press 'N Peel" in four cities in 1977, based on an interview with the inventors of the Post-It Note published in the Financial Times.^[5][6] On April 6, 1980, the product debuted in US stores as "Post-It Notes."^[7] The Sony Walkman went on sale in Japan on July 1, 1979, and was later introduced to the US in June 1980.^[8]

On December 21, 2010, Gawker published an article on this controversy, and the web site was later contacted by a Fox representative. Jeff Apploff, the show's executive producer, initially issued the following statement: "The integrity of the questions and answers on our show are our No. 1 priority. In this case, our research team spoke directly with 3M, and they confirmed that although they had given out free samples in test markets in 1977 and 1978, it wasn't until 1980 that Post-Its were sold in stores. Million Dollar Money Drop stands behind the answer that was revealed on the show."^[9]

On December 23, 2010, Apploff issued another statement: “Unfortunately the information our research department originally obtained from 3M regarding when Post-it notes were first sold was incomplete... As a result of new information we have received from 3M, we feel it is only fair to give our contestants, Gabe and Brittany, another shot to play Million Dollar Money Drop even though this question was not the deciding question in their game. The revised information regarding the Post-it is as follows: the product was originally tested for sale in four cities under the name ‘Press ‘N Peel’ in 1977, sold as ‘Post-its’ in 1979 when the rollout introduction began and sold nationwide in 1980." Losing the $800,000, however, would not have directly impacted the outcome of the game, as the last question (in which the contestants either win or lose the entire remainder of their money) was answered incorrectly.^[10]

On December 28, 2010, Host Kevin Pollak said, "They never had a chance to win that money. Ever. No matter what," and added, "This story is a moot point." He provided further detail when he said, "They lost everything on the next question. It's a non-story."^[11]

International versions

Country	Title	Host	Network	Top Prize	First Airdate
Albania	100 Milionë	Eno Popi	Top Channel	100,000,000 lek	11 January 2011
Argentina	Salven el Millón	Susana Giménez	Telefe	AR$1,000,000	9 June-22 December 2011
Australia [12]	The Million Dollar Drop	Eddie McGuire	Nine Network	A$1,000,000	21 March 2011
Brazil [13]	Um Milhão na Mesa	Silvio Santos	SBT	R$1,000,000	21 September-14 December 2011
Chile [14]	Atrapa los Millones	Don Francisco	Canal 13	CL$500.000.000	2012
Colombia	Millones por montones	María José Barraza	Canal Caracol	CO$1.000.000.000	25 July 2011
Egypt [15]	أنت والمليون Inta wal milyon	Nagla Badr	Mehwar TV	‏EGP1,000,000	2 February 2012
Estonia [16]	Rahaauk	Alari Kivisaar	TV3	€100,000	12 September 2011
France [17]	Money Drop	Laurence Boccolini	TF1	€250,000	1 August-23 September 2011
Germany	Rette die Million!	Jörg Pilawa	ZDF	€1,000,000	13 October 2010
Greece	Money Drop	Grigoris Arnaoutoglou	Mega TV	€300,000	16 October 2010
Hungary	A 40 Milliós Játszma	Rákóczi Ferenc	TV2	‏40,000,000 Ft	29 November 2010
India (Bengali) [18]	কোটি টাকার বাজি Koti Takar Baji	Jeet	Star Jalsha	Rs1,000,000	15 October 2011-14 January 2012
Israel	אל תפיל את המיליון Al Tapil Et HaMilyon	Erez Tal	Channel 2 (Keshet)	‏₪1,000,000	13 October 2010
Italy [19]	The Money Drop	Gerry Scotti	Canale 5	€1,000,000	12 December 2011
Kazakhstan [20]	Шоу Сорок Миллионов Тенге‏ Shou Sorok Millionov Tenge	Abdel' Mukhtarov	tv7	40,000,000 ₸	22 January 2011
Latvia [21]	Paņem 100 000... ja vari	Edgars Ludāns	TV3	€100,000	1 October 2011 [22]
Lithuania [23]	100 000 eurų grynais	Marijonas Mikutavičius	TV3	€100,000	2 September 2011
Malaysia (Malay) [24]	RM 1,000,000 Money Drop	AC Mizal	Astro Ria	RM1,000,000	3 December 2011
Netherlands[25]	Show Me The Money	Beau van Erven Dorens	SBS 6	€1,000,000	11–22 April 2011
Poland	Postaw na milion	Łukasz Nowicki	TVP2	1,000,000 zł	5 March 2011
Russia	Шоу Десять миллионов Shou Desyat' Millionov	Maxim Galkin	Russia 1	10,000,000 руб.	4 September 2010
Serbia [26]	Multimilioner	Dragan Nikolić	RTV Pink	10,000,000RSD	13 September 2011
Singapore (English)[27]	Million Dollar Money Drop	George Young	MediaCorp TV Channel 5	S$1,000,000	9 August 2011
Spain [28]	Atrapa un Millón	Carlos Sobera	Antena 3	€1,000,000 (weekly)	4 February 2011
	Atrapa un Millón Diario			€ 200,000 (daily)	4 April 2011
	Atrapa dos Millones			€ 2,000,000 (special)	21 October 2011
Sweden[29]	Pengarna på bordet	Peter Jihde	TV4	2,000,000 Kr.	3 October 2011
Switzerland (German)[30]	Die Millionen-Falle	René Rindlisbacher	SF1	1,000,000SFr	4 July–15 August 2011
Turkey	Bir Milyon Canlı Para	Engin Altan Düzyatan	Show TV	1,000,000TL	25 October 2010
Ukraine	Шоу на два мiльйони Shou Na Dva Milyoni	Andriy Domanskyi	1+1	2,000,000 грн.	12 January–30 March 2011
United Kingdom	The Million Pound Drop Live	Davina McCall	Channel 4	£1,000,000	24 May 2010

See also

• The Million Pound Drop Live

References