Earning a 'Million'

Several days a month, "Millionaire" opens its toll-free phone line (800-433-8321 at this writing) between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. EST. Anybody can play. After entering some personal information, callers are read three automated questions, each more difficult than the previous.

Just as in the "fastest finger" segment of the show, callers are told to put four items in some kind of order. Each item corresponds to a number on the phone dial. For example, a caller may be asked, "Place these secretaries of state in chronological order: Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, John Foster Dulles, Warren Christopher." (The correct answer: 3, 1, 2, 4.)

If a caller gets all three questions right, he is told to pick a taping date from a list, enter a phone number where he can be reached the next day between noon and 3 p.m. EST, and speak his name and city of residence. ABC estimates that 240,000 people call each day; 6 percent (about 14,000) get a perfect score. Of those, only 40 for each tape date are picked at random and called back the next day. So if a tape date is available for six days, just 240 people will compete in round 2 for that particular tape date.

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Making it on 'Millionaire'

Those who do receive the random call are given another toll-free number, an identification code, and a date to call back to take a second quiz. This test consists of five questions but is otherwise similar to the round 1 quiz. Of the people who ace it, 10 are chosen at random to appear on the show.

The odds of actually making it to the show are against you, but it's not impossible to do. Assuming you ace the round 1 quiz, and each tape date is chosen equally, then the odds of getting the random call the next day are maybe one in 67. It's hard to know how many people ace the five-question round 2 quiz, but 10 percent may be a fair guess. If you ace that, in other words, you're down to about one chance out of three a 1 in 3 of going to New York.

Sure, overall, only 10 people out of 240,000 will make it, but "Millionaire" remains about as egalitarian as game shows get. "Jeopardy!" requires its contestants to pass a test and then go through an interviewing process to be judged by coordinators. With "Millionaire," anybody can make it.

Assuming you know the answers, of course.

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