August 9th, 2000

W ho wants to be a millionaire? Ten lucky Canadians, that's who. After a 12-day telephone contest, the names of the ten finalists who will get their chance to make their final answer on the popular American show Who wants to be a Millionaire were finally released today.

The massively popular game show is going Canuck with a one time, two-part series featuring Canadian contestants, questions, and prize money in Canadian dollars. Contestants were chosen from over 750,000 people who called into a qualifying contest over the telephone. Of those, only 4,000 correctly answered the telephone questions.

A computer whittled the short list down, and the ten finalists and two alternates received phone calls Monday confirming their good fortune. Of these, four are from Ontario, two from the Prairies and the territories, two from Quebec and one each from Atlantic Canada and British Columbia. Only one phone call was placed to each finalist, though, and if the line was busy or if there was no answer, they were disqualified.

These are the lucky contestants:

1. Michelle Jones, from Richmond Hill, Ontario
2. Susan Neff, from Kitchener, Ontario
3. Bill Shizas, from Toronto, Ontario
4. Angela Lemire, from Windsor, Ontario
5. Shannon Sullivan, from St. John's, Newfoundland
6. Andrew Heaman, from Victoria, British Columbia
7. Stewart Coward, from Regina, Saskatchewan
8. Donald Miller, from Regina, Saskatchewan
9. Allan Vickers, from Chateauguay, Quebec
10. Francois Laramee, from Verdun, Quebec

The alternates are Curtis Arnold from Kananaskis, Alberta and Robert Nielsen from Pointe Claire, Quebec.

The show is to be shot in New York on the same set used by the American version, but will be hosted by well-known journalist Pamela Wallin. The two specials will air on CTV September 13th and 14th, at 8pm EST.

Related Links

• Official Who wants to be a Millionaire Web site
• Hot Seat Tales
  What it's like to be in the hot seat, by ex-contestant Michael Rechtshaffen.
• Jump the Shark
  A show "Jumps the Shark" when it's reached the highest it can possibly go… and it's all downhill from there. Vote for when you think Who Wants to be a Millionaire will - if it hasn't already.
• Millionaire Sounds
  Make your computer sound like a millionaire with these sound effects from the show.
• Mr. Showbiz's Regis Philbin profile
  Everything you wanted to know about the man and those spiffy ties.
• Millionaire Practice
  Practice up with this unofficial WWTBAM practice game page.
• Loogaroo's WWTBAM Fan Site
  This slightly obsessed fan has compiled a list of ALL of the show's contestants, plus the questions they faced. Creepy, but complete.
• Pamela Wallin's Web site