Jeremy Clarkson will front the ITV comeback of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for just seven episodes to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show. Airing across the course of a week, the hour-long episodes will play out every night on ITV.
Just like before, the show will still offer members of the public the chance to win £1 million, with each contestant given the opportunity to answer 15 questions on their way to winning this life changing prize. But ITV have teased a number of “new twists and turns” for audiences to look forward to, and they have finally been announced.
While viewers will be familiar with lifelines including Ask The Audience, Phone a Friend and 50:50, the broadcaster are introducing a brand new fourth lifeline called Ask The Host. This will see Jeremy tested on his quizzing knowledge in a show first. Jeremy can either reveal if he knows the answer or offer an opinion on what it might be.
In another twist, contestants will be able to set their own second safety net amount. While there has always been a fixed safety net at £1,000 after question five, the contestant will now be able to see when this minimum amount has risen.
Jeremy explained: “If the contestant chooses that Ask The Host lifeline, they get to ask me if I know the answer. God help them. Anyone who doesn’t win £1,000,000 is bound, at some point, to ask me if I know the answer.”
“And if it’s 1970’s prog rock music, I probably will. If it’s anything other than that, I probably won’t,” he said.
Speaking about the safety net changes, Jeremy added: “They can choose where it goes. So they choose how much they are going to lose at any given moment, which is a very clever idea. That requires balls of steel. To go beyond, say £32,000, when you’re going to drop back to £1,000 if you get it wrong. To say, ‘no I’ll set it at £64,000 and risk losing £63,000 if I get it wrong’, balls of steel.”
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? starts this Saturday on ITV at 9.15pm.