Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has released a teaser trailer for its 14th season in syndication—yes, it’s still on the air—giving viewers their first glimpse of Chris Harrison (The Bachelor) as host. Harrison succeeds Terry Crews, who, like Cedric The Entertainer before him, spent only one season as Millionaire emcee before calling it quits. Harrison is a bland and inoffensive choice, and he should be fine.
The real item of interest here for Millionaire fans is the end, at long last, of the “shuffle” format that has plagued the show since 2010. Under the shuffle rules, the money values for a player’s first 10 questions (of 14 total) were randomized, and contestants didn’t learn how much a question added to their “bank” until after the fact—only the last four questions on the journey to $1,000,000 were played the traditional way. The randomization robbed Millionaire of its dramatic slow build and made the show feel scattered. As announced earlier this summer, Harrison will preside over a revised Millionaire that closely resembles the original, with a “ladder” of 14 questions that escalate a player’s winnings from $500 to the million-dollar grand prize. It may be a well-worn conceit, but it’s a compelling setup that makes Millionaire more of a straightforward, tense Q&A and less of a lottery.
The 14th season of syndicated Millionaire premieres Sept. 14.