To commemorate the anniversary of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, original host Regis Philbin returns for two weeks of new shows starting Aug. 9 on ABC. We asked Philbin to recall his favorite moments from his Millionaire run.
The first $1 million winner
''John Carpenter went through the 14 questions without using a lifeline.
For the last one, he chose Phone-a-Friend even though he knew the answer
and called his father to tell him he was a millionaire.''
The show's biggest winner
''After a while, a million dollars became not that exciting, believe it
or not, so we escalated the jackpot. Kevin Olmstead won $2.18 million,
the most money we've ever given out on Millionaire.''
The contestant Regis psyched out
''His name was Dan Doody, and to loosen him up, I said, 'Dan, who wants
to be a millionaire? Doody do!' He looked at me and lost it all. He got
to $1,000, but I felt responsible for poor Doody doing so badly.''
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