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As the saying goes that you don’t change a winning team, popular broadcaster, Frank Edoho, has staged a comeback as the host of nation’s favourite TV game show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
He was unveiled alongside the sponsors of the show at a special reveal event held at Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos last Sunday. The new sponsors are UP, Payattitude, Payarena, and HopePSBank. The companies are members of UP Group, Nigeria’s premier payments and financial technology company and leaders in digital payments innovation.
In his keynote speech at the event, the Managing Director of UP, Agada Apochi, explained that the group’s decision to sponsor Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Series 2 – The Rebirth was borne out of the desire to educate, excite and entertain Nigerians. He further stated that the investment in the game show is not only aimed at promoting the brands in the company’s portfolio but also geared towards building a better future for Nigeria by informing, educating, and entertaining them.
“Entertainment brings people together, whether it is football or show. It brings families and colleagues together. It is for this reason we are investing in entertainment and bringing back Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. For us at UP group, we are investing in this TV game show not only because we want to promote our brands but also because we want to see a better Nigeria. You would agree with me that there is no better way to build a better future for Nigeria than investment in education,” Apochi said.
According to him, the show would help promote knowledge acquisition and allow Nigerians to realise their economic dreams by winning cash prizes every week for 52 weeks. He disclosed that the company would be leveraging its expertise in technology to open up the space. “Nigerians can now participate in the show from the comfort of their homes using the Payattitude USSD code *569# or USSD codes of Payattitude partner banks. With ease from your hand-held device, you can download the Payattitude app or dial *569#, and you can then link your banks’ accounts to Payattitude. For the first time, you no longer need SMS code to play a game of this kind, which is the first of its kind in Nigeria,” he explained.
In his remarks, Hakeem Condotti, Chief Executive Officer of BLK Hut, franchise owner of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in Nigeria, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Series 2 – The Rebirth is produced in Nigeria by BLK Hut under the license of Sony Pictures. He added that BLK Hut is ready to deliver international, creative and quality content for the admiration of Nigerians.
“It is a great deal of excitement for us to be involved in the production of the iconic game show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which a lot of Nigerians have been looking forward to gracing their TV screens. We are aware of the expectation, and we can assure everyone that the quality of the content week in week out would be superb. We have the capacity and the resources to deliver entertaining and educative content that leaves long-lasting memories,” he said.
Speaking, Edoho said the show has returned with some innovations, which include offering a staggering star prize of N20 million. He also said that apart from the usual three lifelines that lovers of the show are familiar with, there is ‘50/50’ whereby the computer eliminates two random wrong options, leaving the right option and the other remaining wrong option. So also is ‘Phone a Friend’ whereby the contestant has 30 seconds to call one of their five pre-arranged friends, read the question and four possible alternatives to the friend who then uses the remaining time to respond. And then ‘Ask the Audience’ whereby the audience members use touchpads to designate what they believe the correct option is. In this case, the percentage of the audience choosing each specific option is then displayed to the contestant – with a new lifeline now added for this series 2, which is ‘Ask The Host’. The lifeline gives the contestants one chance to ask the host to answer the question.
