Who Wants To Be A Millionaire lifelines: What are they and how do they work?
WHO Wants To Be A Millionaire is a British quiz that has become one of the most successful gameshows on the planet, with franchises appearing in countries across the face of the globe.
Contestants do get some help with their answers — here we look at what the show's 'lifelines' are and how they work.
What are the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire lifelines and how do they work?
The classic format of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is that contestants must answer questions in the hope of winning £1 million.
Each right answer brings them closer to the ultimate cash prize.
They will have a choice of four answers and can use four lifelines to help them in the process.
If they get an answer wrong before reaching the first 'safety net' of £1,000, they will leave the show with nothing.
Here's how each of the lifelines works...
Phone A Friend
In this case the contestant can ring someone at home, usually a friend or relative, to see if they know the answer.
Once the call starts the contestant is up against the clock and has 30 seconds to read out the options and get the answer.
Each contestant has two phone-a-friends on stand-by.
Once contestants get into the main game show, production will send an independent security team to all phone-a-friend residents for that episode to make sure they don't cheat and look up the answers.
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The phone-a-friends will not see the countdown clock and the contestant can always choose to go with a different final answer.
In 2020, the contestant will receive two phone a friends due to Ask The Audience being axed.
Ask The Audience
If a contestant decides to use this lifeline, the host will read the question and all possible answers.
The studio audience will then vote for the answer they think is correct via an electronic keypad within an allotted time.
The audience will not have access to any device where they could find out the answer from a third party or Internet.
The contestant does not need to take the advice given and can still choose to go home with the money they have already banked.
50:50
In this case the four answers are cut down to two.
This gives the contestant a 50 per cent chance of choosing the right answer.
The two wrong answers which are removed are selected at random by the show's computer.
Even after they have used this lifeline, the contestant can still choose to not answer the question and take the money that they have currently banked.
Ask The Host
This is a relatively new lifeline that was introduced for the 20th anniversary special.
If the contestant doesn't know the answer they can ask the host — Jeremy Clarkson.
When Ask The Host was first introduced, Jeremy told the , “God help them. Anyone who doesn’t win £1,000,000 is bound, at some point, to ask me if I know the answer.
"And if it’s 1970’s prog rock music, I probably will. If it’s anything other than that, I probably won’t.”