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70 free Who Wants to Be a Millionaire trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Who Wants to Be a Millionaire trivia quiz covers the whole franchise, from the 1998 British original with its Cash Mountain working title and Holst-inspired music through the American, Australian and Indian versions and the film Slumdog Millionaire. It takes in the hosts, the lifelines and the rules of Fastest Finger First, plus the record-breaking audiences and the format's sale to Sony. The contestants get plenty of room too: the first winner who phoned his dad on the final question, the garden designer whose million-pound question was about her own ancestors, the major and the coughs, the jackpot that grew by $10,000 an episode, the first woman to win in America, and the celebrity chef who finally broke a 17-year drought. There is a short round on the drama Quiz and the play behind it. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which British network aired the original series when it debuted on 4 September 1998?
ITV
The first run went out on successive evenings for around ten days before settling into a Saturday primetime slot in autumn 2000.
Q 02What working title did the show carry during its design phase?
Cash Mountain
The final title was chosen by the network's director of programmes, David Liddiment.
Q 03The show's title comes from a Cole Porter song written for which 1956 musical film?
High Society
The film starred Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm.
Q 04Who presented the original British series from 1998 to 2014?
Chris Tarrant
He signed off with a clip-show farewell in February 2014 after 30 series.
Q 05The three creators had devised games for the host's morning show on which radio station?
Capital FM
One of those radio games was known as the bong game.
Q 06Which father-and-son duo composed the tension-building music that plays throughout every episode?
Keith and Matthew Strachan
Unusually for a game show, the score was designed to run for the entire episode rather than only at key moments.
Q 07The main theme was inspired by which movement of Gustav Holst's The Planets?
Mars
The composers wrote three variations for the main game, each ramping up the tension as the money climbed.
Q 08Who became the first top-prize winner anywhere in the franchise, on the American show in November 1999?
John Carpenter
He reached the final question without using a single lifeline.
Q 09What did the first-ever top-prize winner do for a living, prompting playful boos?
He was an IRS agent
He was still working for the Internal Revenue Service as of 2024, having decided the winnings were not enough to quit.
Q 10The first US million-dollar question asked which president had appeared on Laugh-In. What was the answer?
Richard Nixon
The winner used his Phone-a-Friend on that question only to tell his father he was about to win.
Q 11Who was the first person to win £1 million on the British show, in November 2000?
Judith Keppel
She was a garden designer who had spent about £100 phoning the show more than 50 times to get on.
Q 12The first British £1 million winner went on to be a resident quizzer on which BBC show from 2003 to 2022?
Eggheads
She was a granddaughter of the 9th Earl of Albemarle and a third cousin of Queen Camilla.
Q 13The first British £1 million question, in November 2000, concerned Henry II and which queen, the winner's own ancestor?
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Her family tree ran back through the Earls of Albemarle to the medieval royal couple in the question.
Q 21Who directed all three episodes of the 2020 drama Quiz?
Stephen Frears
Writer James Graham pitched it as an Ocean's 11 with middle-class English people using encyclopedias instead of guns.
Q 22In 2010 the coughing-scandal major lost three toes in an accident involving what?
A lawnmower
He went on to run a computer business and had written two novels by 2020.
Q 23Who hosted the original American primetime version, which launched in August 1999?
Regis Philbin
The show became the highest-rated on US television in the 1999–2000 season, averaging about 29 million viewers.
Q 14Which British Army major was denied £1 million in the 2001 Millionaire coughing scandal?
Charles Ingram
His wife and her brother had each already appeared as contestants and won the same five-figure sum.
Q 15What is a one followed by one hundred zeros called, per the disputed 2001 £1 million question?
A googol
The contestant said he had never heard of the correct term, then locked it in anyway.
Q 16What was the correct answer to the £500,000 question about Baron Haussmann in the 2001 Millionaire scandal?
Paris
He guessed the surname sounded German before switching to the right city.
Q 17Where were the three defendants in the coughing scandal tried and convicted in April 2003?
Southwark Crown Court
The trial lasted four weeks and the jury deliberated for three and a half days.
Q 18What was the occupation of Tecwen Whittock, the man convicted of coughing to signal answers in 2001?
College lecturer
He told the court he suffered from a persistent cough caused by hay fever and a dust allergy.
Q 19In the 2020 drama Quiz, which actor played the show's host?
Michael Sheen
He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the BAFTA Television Awards for the role.
Q 20Who played the accused major in the 2020 drama Quiz?
Matthew Macfadyen
The real couple visited the set to meet the actors playing them.
Q 24The original US host popularised which menswear look during the show's first run?
The monochromatic suit, shirt and tie
Van Heusen briefly sold a clothing line based on the look, called Regis.
Q 25Which network launched the American version in 1999?
ABC
It began as a two-week special event before becoming a regular series in January 2000.
Q 26Who hosted the daily syndicated American version from 2002 to 2013?
Meredith Vieira
She had earlier been a celebrity contestant, winning $250,000 for charity on the primetime show.
Q 27Who was first offered the syndicated US hosting job in 2002 but turned it down almost immediately?
Rosie O'Donnell
The eventual host was offered the role to sweeten a contract renegotiation for The View.
Q 28Which late-night host fronted the 2020 primetime revival of the American show?
Jimmy Kimmel
He also served as co-executive producer of the reboot, taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City.
Q 29Who hosted the syndicated American show for 2014-15 after Cedric the Entertainer left?
Terry Crews
Chris Harrison then took over full hosting duties in autumn 2015.
Q 30Kevin Olmstead won a progressive jackpot on the US show in April 2001. How much was it?
$2,180,000
The prize had been rising by $10,000 per episode, making him the biggest winner in television history at the time.