Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Trivia
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64 free Who Wants to Be a Millionaire trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Sep 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 64 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which British network first aired Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in September 1998?
ITV
ITV: it launched the show as a nightly event, airing it on successive evenings.
Q 02What working title did Who Wants to Be a Millionaire carry during its design phase?
Cash Mountain
Cash Mountain: once the show was a hit, a Sydney man claimed it copied a quiz format he had devised years earlier.
Q 03Who Wants to Be a Millionaire takes its title from a Cole Porter song written for which 1956 musical film?
High Society
High Society: Oscar voters mistakenly nominated the writers of a 1955 Bowery Boys comedy with the same title, who asked to be removed.
Q 04Who presented the original British Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from 1998 to 2014?
Chris Tarrant
Chris Tarrant: his decision to quit in October 2013 led the network to axe the show.
Q 05Before Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, its creators devised games for the host's breakfast show on which radio station?
Capital FM
Capital FM: the TV show grew out of Double or Quits, a radio game in which a £1 stake doubled with every correct answer.
Q 06Which father-and-son duo composed the tension-building music that plays throughout Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Keith and Matthew Strachan
Keith and Matthew Strachan: after a pilot that flopped, they reworked the music at short notice.
Q 07Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's main theme was inspired by which movement of Gustav Holst's The Planets?
Mars
Mars: the composers raised the music a semitone with each new question, ramping up the tension as the money climbed.
Q 08In November 1999, who became the first top-prize winner in any version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
John Carpenter
John Carpenter: he used his Phone-a-Friend on the final question only to call his father and say he was about to win.
Q 09What was the first Millionaire top-prize winner's job, which prompted playful boos?
He was an IRS agent
He was an IRS agent, and he kept working for the IRS even after winning his million dollars.
Q 10Which president was the answer when the first American Millionaire $1 million question asked who had appeared on Laugh-In?
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon: while running for president, he appeared on the comedy show to deliver its catchphrase, 'Sock it to me'.
Q 11Who became the British Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's first £1 million winner, in November 2000?
Judith Keppel
Judith Keppel: after her final answer, the host cut to an ad break before revealing she had won.
Q 12The British Millionaire's first £1 million winner later became a resident quizzer on which BBC Two show?
Eggheads
Eggheads: she spent 19 years on its panel of champions, then returned for the show's 2,000th episode in 2023.
Q 13Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's first British £1 million question concerned Henry II and which queen?
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine: before marrying Henry she had been queen of France for 15 years, until her marriage to Louis VII was annulled.
Q 21Who directed all three episodes of the 2020 Millionaire drama Quiz?
Stephen Frears
Stephen Frears: writer James Graham pitched the story as Ocean's Eleven with middle-class people armed with encyclopedias.
Q 22In the 2001 Millionaire coughing scandal, which singer did the major pick despite saying he had never heard of him?
Craig David
Craig David: with a lifeline leaving just Craig David and A1, the major said he would go for A1, then switched.
Q 23Who hosted the original primetime American Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which launched in August 1999?
Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin: of the hosts the producers considered, he wanted the job most, and he eagerly lobbied for it.
Q 14Which British Army major was denied £1 million in the 2001 Millionaire coughing scandal?
Charles Ingram
Charles Ingram: the Army Board later made him resign his commission, though he was allowed to keep his pension.
Q 15Which name for a one followed by 100 zeros answered the disputed £1 million question in Millionaire's 2001 coughing scandal?
A googol
A googol: the major first dismissed it, saying he did not know what a googol was, then locked it in anyway.
Q 16Which city did Baron Haussmann famously plan, the answer to the £500,000 question in Millionaire's 2001 coughing scandal?
Paris
Paris: the major first said Berlin, reasoning that Haussmann sounded more German, before switching to the right city.
Q 17After their 2003 convictions in Millionaire's coughing scandal, what punishment did the three defendants receive?
Suspended prison sentences
Suspended prison sentences: weeks later the major's unaired run was shown for the first time in a documentary, with the coughs audible.
Q 18What was the occupation of Tecwen Whittock, convicted of coughing to signal answers on Millionaire in 2001?
College lecturer
College lecturer: his defence argued that hay fever, not a signalling scheme, was behind his coughs.
Q 19In the 2020 drama Quiz, which actor played the original British Millionaire host?
Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen: the real host later called the drama's suggestion that the major might be innocent 'blatant nonsense'.
Q 20Who played the accused major in the 2020 Millionaire drama Quiz?
Matthew Macfadyen
Matthew Macfadyen: the drama first presents the major as guilty, then explores whether he might have been innocent.
Q 24Which menswear look did the original American Millionaire host popularise?
The monochromatic suit, shirt and tie
The monochromatic suit, shirt and tie: the look was such a hit that Van Heusen launched a licensed line of matching shirts and ties.
Q 25Which US network launched the American Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 1999?
ABC
ABC: the network aired it up to several nights a week, audiences burned out, and the primetime run was cancelled in 2002.
Q 26Who hosted the daily syndicated American Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from 2002 to 2013?
Meredith Vieira
Meredith Vieira: before taking over as host, she had played the primetime show herself as a celebrity contestant.
Q 27Which late-night host fronted the 2020 primetime revival of the American Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel: the first episodes were shot without a studio audience in March 2020, just before California's stay-at-home order.
Q 28Who hosted the syndicated American Millionaire for 2014-15, after Cedric the Entertainer left?
Terry Crews
Terry Crews: after one season he was unable to continue, because of his demanding film and primetime TV work.
Q 29Why did Kevin Olmstead win $2.18 million, not the usual $1 million, on the US Millionaire?
Growing jackpot
Growing jackpot: during a long drought without a top-prize winner, a bonus kept growing, making his win TV's biggest at the time.
Q 30Which sitcom's former stars Kate Flannery and Oscar Nuñez won the US Millionaire top prize together in 2025?
The Office
The Office: they split the $1 million prize between their chosen charities, Planned Parenthood and a Philadelphia food bank.