<Tr> <Th> Official UK version website </Th> <Td> millionaire.itv.com/home/ </Td> </Tr> <P> Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (informally Millionaire) is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight . In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television, large cash prizes are offered for correctly answering a series of multiple - choice questions of increasing (or, in some cases, random) difficulty . The maximum cash prize (in the original British version) was one million pounds . Most international versions offer a top prize of one million units of the local currency . </P> <P> The original British version of the show debuted on 4 September 1998, and aired on ITV with Chris Tarrant as its host until 11 February 2014 . International variants have aired in around 160 countries worldwide . The show's format is a twist on the game show genre--only one contestant plays at a time (similar to some radio quizzes), and the emphasis is on suspense rather than speed . In most versions there are no time limits to answer the questions, and contestants are given the question before they must decide whether to attempt an answer . </P> <P> The contestants must first play a preliminary round, called "Fastest Finger First" (or, in the U.S. version, simply "Fastest Finger"), where they are all given a question and four answers from the host and are asked to put those four answers into a particular order; in the first series of the British version and in pre-2003 episodes of the Australian version, the round instead required the contestants to answer one multiple - choice question correctly as quickly as possible . The contestant who does so correctly and in the fastest time goes on to play the main game for the maximum possible prize (often a million units of the local currency). In the event that two or more contestants are tied for the fastest time, those contestants play another question to break the tie . If no one gets the question right, that question is discarded and another question is played in the same manner . If any contestants are visually impaired, the host reads the question and four choices all at once, then repeats the choices after the music begins . </P>

When was who wants to be a millionaire started