It’s official – Jeremy Clarkson will be returning to ITV’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for 10 brand new episodes in 2019. Clarkson will be in the hot seat again after completing seven episodes for the broadcaster earlier this year, to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show.
Just like before, Millionaire will offer members of the public a chance to win £1 million, with each contestant given the opportunity to answer 15 questions on their way to winning the life-changing prize.
Clarkson has joked that he’s using Millionaire as a way to get away from his Grand Tour co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May. “I absolutely loved hosting the anniversary shows and cannot wait to spend a few precious hours away from James May and Richard Hammond, making the new ones,” Clarkson said.
Hammond has stated previously that he thought Jeremy was “annoyingly good” as a host on Millionaire, adding: “He likes it. He gets to sit down and he has the name of the show written down in front of him so he can’t forget it. And it’s dry as well, so it is nice for a man of his age.”
While viewers will be familiar with lifelines including Ask The Audience, Phone a Friend and 50:50, ITV recently introduced a brand new fourth lifeline called Ask The Host. This resulted in Clarkson being tested on his quizzing knowledge – either revealing whether he knew the answer or offering an opinion on what it might be.
But while Clarkson may be smart, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. In an episode which aired in May, Clarkson over-confidently told a contestant he had got an answer right but was shocked when the computer told him he was in fact, wrong.
After he read the question, “What type of wild animal is an ibex?” Clarkson boasted to the contestant that he knew the answer. It was all a bit of a tease, as the ‘Ask the Host’ lifeline had already been used on a previous question. The contestant opted to use the ‘Phone A Friend’ lifeline instead and was told the answer was a deer. Clarkson then confidently locked in the answer and said, “I’m not even going to look at the screen. That’s the correct answer.”
But unfortunately for the contestant, Clarkson was completely wrong – and as the audience burst into applause, the correct answer of ‘goat’ flashed up on the screen. So while the contestant was smiling at the thought of winning $62,000, he had in fact lost $29,153 and would be going home with just under $2000 instead.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire first aired in 1998, ending in 2013 when original host Chris Tarrant stepped down from presenting duties after 15 years.