Millionaire: Hot Seat

Millionaire: Hot Seat is an Australian game show based on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. It has run since April 20, 2009 on the Nine Network.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Just like the US syndicated version since its ninth season, the music is no longer very dramatic (except for the music that was kept).
 * 2) Unfair format in which only the last remaining contestant wins money (a measly $1,000) if the final question (which drops down from $1,000,000 to $10,000 as the contestants get eliminated), or any question before it, gets answered incorrectly.
 * 3) The timer also further worsens things, as questions 10-15 (which tend to be extremely difficult) must be answered in 45 seconds, or else the contestant answering gets eliminated and the final question drops down. Even the US clock format treated the timer running out as walking away, and question 15 used a time bank of all the remaining time from the first 14 questions, which makes such a format much more fair.
 * 4) The lighting never darkens; the $1,000,000 question is just as bright as the $100 question.
 * 5) Eddie McGuire can still be wooden occasionally.
 * 6) The format change in 2017 made it even worse: the Fastest Finger First portion is 15 questions long, and the winning contestant could only use one lifeline for a $1,000 cheque. The 50:50 and Switch lifelines can be quite a nuisance sometimes (since the 50:50 is randomised you cannot count on it always removing an incorrect answer you think is correct, and the Switch may not always give you the question from an area you're strong in), and the Ask a Friend (Ask Eddie for the 2020 season because of COVID) lifeline is very hit and miss, depending on the knowledge of the friend in the audience/Eddie.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The cues that were retained are still dramatic.
 * 2) Eddie is still funny.
 * 3) The Belgian version handled Fastest Finger much better, with only five questions, and a better set. The Portuguese version from 2020 also handles the Fastest Finger problem much better, as there are 3 "put the answers in the correct order" (as in classic Millionaire, rather than the "answer the question correctly" used in UK Millionaire for its first series in 1998 and in Australian and Belgian Hot Seat) questions for the round after which the main game starts, and also has a fantastic set inspired by the UK reboot of the original.
 * 4) The core gameplay is still retained and the show had good pacing before the introduction of Fastest Finger First.