BELIEVE THE HYPE. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is a TV quiz show on adrenalin.
'These doors will be closed,' warns local actor and show co-host Lawrence Lau She-yiu, gesticulating towards the entrance. 'So if nature is calling now, you have 10 minutes to visit the bathroom.' It is 6.10pm and I have just entered Studio Nine at ATV where the sixth instalment of the Hong Kong franchised version of Millionaire is being recorded.
Nature wasn't calling but would be, no doubt, within the next couple of hours. I started to feel a little nervous and my throat began to tickle. And I wasn't even a contestant.
But this is no ordinary Hong Kong TV game show in which contestants are force-fed insects or wasabi. No, this is serious business. This is a show where the audience can make a million-dollar difference.
For those who have not heard about the phenomenon, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is a British quiz show that first aired in late 1998. It has been so successful that its London-based production outfit, Celador, has now sold the rights to the game to more than 30 countries, including Australia, Germany, Russia and Japan.
All networks, wherever, must stick to the same stringent production standards approved by Celador so that the show looks exactly the same around the world (though its name had to be altered in Turkey and Italy because you wouldn't exactly be rolling in it with a 'million' in their currencies).