The hugely popular US game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire will be coming to Hong Kong television sets next year.
ATV has bought the rights to air a Cantonese-language version and hopes it will top the ratings. But the jackpot will be HK$1 million - only a fraction of the US$1 million (HK$7.8 million) people can win in the show's original US format.
ATV confirmed yesterday it was signing a deal with the distributors of the show, which now has viewers glued to their screens in dozens of countries, including Britain, Australia, India, Malaysia and Japan.
The show will be prime-time viewing next year, with details of screening times and dates to be announced when the contract is signed tomorrow.
The standard format for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is a series of multiple-choice questions, where contestants in the 'hot seat' win money for each correct answer. The prize money doubles from question to question as the degree of difficulty increases, but contestants lose some or all of the money if they give a wrong answer. But certain benchmark cash sums are guaranteed.
One young British backpacker appears to have made the show his key occupation. After winning a sizeable amount on Australia's Millionaire show, he did the same on Britain's version and was last heard of trying to get on to the show in Canada.