“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” first started on 4 September 1998 as a British TV game show on ITV, hosted by Chris Tarrant.

Quick Scoop

  • Original launch date (UK): 4 September 1998.
  • Country of origin: United Kingdom, on ITV.
  • Original host: Chris Tarrant.
  • Format impact: The show’s success led to international versions in over 100 countries, including the U.S. adaptation starting in 1999.

A tiny bit of story

When it premiered in 1998 , “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” felt fresh and tense: dark studio, dramatic music, and the now-iconic multiple-choice money ladder. The mix of big prize money, lifelines like 50:50, Phone-a- Friend, and Ask the Audience quickly turned it into a global format copied and adapted almost everywhere.

A single contestant in the “hot seat,” one question away from life‑changing money, became one of the defining TV images of late‑90s and early‑2000s quiz shows.

TL;DR: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire started on 4 September 1998 in the UK; its success spawned the U.S. and many other versions that kept the format trending for decades.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.