<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Website </Td> </Tr> <P> Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (often informally called Millionaire) is an American television game show based on the same - titled British program and developed for the United States by Michael Davies . The show features a quiz competition in which contestants attempt to win a top prize of $1,000,000 by answering a series of multiple - choice questions of increasing difficulty (although, for a time, most of the questions were of random difficulty). The program has endured as one of the longest - running and most successful international variants in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise . </P> <P> The original U.S. version aired on ABC from August 16, 1999, to June 27, 2002, and was hosted by Regis Philbin . The daily syndicated version of the show began airing on September 16, 2002, and was hosted for eleven seasons by Meredith Vieira until May 31, 2013 . Later hosts included Cedric the Entertainer in the 2013--14 season, Terry Crews in the following season (2014--15), and Chris Harrison, who began hosting on September 14, 2015 . </P> <P> As the first U.S. network game show to offer a million - dollar top prize, the show made television history by becoming one of the highest - rated game shows in the history of American television . The U.S. Millionaire has won seven Daytime Emmy Awards, and TV Guide ranked it No. 6 in its 2013 list of the 60 greatest game shows of all time . </P>

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