Regis Philbin will be looking to give away more big bucks on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

PASADENA, Calif. — We recall it as a time when TV audiences lost their minds.

Okay, we know, you can point to the weekly ratings and say that’s an ongoing process. But this is a specific reference to the turn of the century, i.e., the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? era.

And if viewers to lost their minds, ABC really did. Over a three-year period, it aired 363 episodes of Millionaire, according to producer Michael Davies.

Now, when we say that people “lost their minds,” that isn’t a comment on the quality of Millionaire, although the original show moved at a snail’s pace. But rarely has a single program essentially taken over a medium, and this one came close to doing that.

Tonight, host Regis Philbin brings Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? back to primetime to mark the 10th anniversary. In a nod to the original phenomenon, there’ll be an 11-episodes-in-15-nights blitz on ABC and Citytv.

“It’s very special to me, it was a highlight in my career, and in my life, and I loved every minute of the years that I did it (1999-2002),” Philbin said. “It’s a thrill to be back and that’s why I’m doing it.”

Theories abound about the popularity of game shows. Some say they do better when times are tough. Others say economic conditions have nothing to do with it, because greed is timeless.

Davies is of the belief that if the movers and shakers really had been paying attention, the success of the original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? could have made a bigger impact within the TV industry than it did.

“The legacy of Millionaire should have been that the economics of television changed,” Davies said.

“Shows like Millionaire, game shows, are so much cheaper to produce than dramas, comedies, news magazines and other reality shows. Game shows also are interactive. They have extensions. They do really good jobs in lots of different time periods across television at a great price point.

“With great vertical pressure on show budgets and on time periods up and down the dial, game shows, of course, are back.”

Some changes have been made to the new version of Millionaire. There will be a time clock. And a celebrity will come on at the end of each episode to answer one question for charity. Participants include Katy Perry, Vanessa Williams, Snoop Dog, Lauren Conrad, Patricia Heaton and Steve Nash.

Both Philbin and Davies said Millionaire is re-emerging as a one-off anniversary thing, but they wouldn’t be against having it return, say, every August.

But could it be even more than that?

“If the network comes to us and says, ‘Please, Michael and Regis, please help us out, please save us again,’ then we would listen,” Philbin said. “We’re more than willing to go every night, or once a week, or once a month. Any time they need us, we want to do this show.”

We know.

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca