Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?/YMMV

Subjective Tropes and Audience Reactions relating to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?


 * Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Summarily, the reason for the 2010 Retool...and lampshaded almost instantly.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Almost every time a contestant struggled between two answers, then used the 50:50 only for it to leave them with (or worse, eliminate) the two answers they were struggling between. It happened so frequently over the years that many viewers complained the "random removal" felt more like rigging (a fact Norm MacDonald caught on to, as mentioned under the Funny Moments tab), especially at the very end of a themed week where the contestant's only options are really Quit or Fail. Several fans suggested to potential contestants that, if they considered using the 50:50, not to say the answers they were considering out loud. The fact that it originally wasn't random (though this wasn't told to the viewers or contestants) doesn't help any — the answers least likely to get picked were always the ones removed.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Amazingly for game shows, especially the Radio Edit by Amoure of the main theme.
 * Fan Dumb / It's Easy, So It Sucks / It's Hard, So It Sucks: Fans criticized the American version during its original ABC run when a Millionaire was crowned in a matter of months, or even weeks or days. When the show moved to syndication, the show upped the difficulty of the questions (although this was the result of a lower budget) and the fans still complained about the difficulty which results in droughts that can last for years. When the show returned to ABC for its 10th Anniversary, the difficulty was lowered a bit...but fans still complained.
 * Pandering to the Base: In response to the drought, the show created the Tournament Of Ten...but although fans were finally going to get a Millionaire without the need to lower difficulty, they now complained about not only the "manufacturing" of a Millionaire (not a "legit" win by the normal rules of the game, i.e. "answer 15 questions right to win") and the Tournament's format proving the show was cheap (each seed risked what they already won, with a drop to $25,000 if incorrect). To be fair, they had a point — nine of the ten seeds, including several $50,000 winners, decided to walk.
 * Mis Blamed: Some fans tend to complain that the Sequel Difficulty Spike occurred mainly because the show and its executives became "a bunch of cheap bastards". The actual reason for the increased difficulty is because ratings of the syndicated version aren't as huge as the network version once was (ABC's Executive Meddling didn't help matters), and thus can't offer as much money.
 * Hate Dumb / Misplaced Nationalism: The American version has gotten hate simply because "It's not the British version."
 * Heartwarming Moment: After Kevin Smith became the first $1,000,000 winner on the syndicated version, he called his retired mother, who he was playing to help, from the studio.
 * Hype Backlash: The American version of the show is an excellent example of this. The show's enormous popularity quickly evaporated due to ABC's overexposure of it. At its peak the show was airing at least four nights a week.
 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Unlike most of its cousins, the German localization is still running in two weekly primetime slots (Mondays and Fridays) and is still, after ten years, one of the most popular TV shows in Germany. This is partly because of Günther Jauch.
 * Misaimed Fandom: Despite being the world's most straight-laced game, the UK version has won a number of gongs at the British Comedy Awards.
 * Nightmare Fuel / Hell Is That Noise: The music that plays when you get the $1,000,000 question wrong has only ever been heard once on the American version (see You Are Better Than You Think You Are below), and prior to that was only available to hear on a CD-ROM game or certain websites.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks / Jumping the Shark / Ruined FOREVER: Any changes will often vary among the fans to say the least, regardless of the extent or the justification. From Meredith Vieira...to the Clock format...the Hot Seat format...and then the new money ladder...and then "Super Mix"...and it goes on. Granted, the show had arguably been in a funk for a while with a dwindling fanbase and thus needed to be freshened up, but it seems each new change alienates as many fans as it reclaims.
 * What an Idiot!: So many, we needed a separate page.