Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

The point Billy is making is that if used with conjunction with 50:50 it effectively means they can get an automatically pass on a question. Imagine how much of an anti-climax that would be on a Million Pound question?

I like double dip as a lifeline but only instead of 50:50 not as well of.

I’m not really a fan of a second phone a friend as a replacement for ask the audience but can’t think of a better solution. Ask the nation type lifelines create more complications.

Who is this Billy?

I can't remember how they did it on the American version, but I think if you used Double Dip, you wouldn't be able to use any other lifeline, much less the 50:50? And vice versa, for those reasons identified.

The alternative to a 2nd phone a friend, would be to do what the revival American Millionaire did, which is inviting a friend who is a lifeline. But set design seems to be preventing that from happening.

Yes, you wouldn't be able to use it in conjunction with 50/50.

The point is it puts caveats on using lifelines then. And it’s a complication the format doesn’t need.

They’ve probably just decided that rather than inventing new lifelines that are unknown to UK viewers, and coming up with situations where only some can be used in some circumstances, it’s better to just double up on an existing lifeline, especially as its obviously a temporary measure.

IMO They could have just gone back to three lifelines, as ask the Host is already an addition to the original three. Although I guess it's mainly proved rather useless in practice. The other option could have been to bring back the 'Flip' lifeline (or Switch the Question as it was known in the US) where the whole question is scrapped and you get another instead. They used this in the later UK run so it's already known to a UK audience and is quite a good extra lifeline - I think I'd have preferred this to the rather lazy feeling second Phone a Friend.

Billy Asso long standing TV Forum member.

Or they could have asked the Fastest Finger contestants? With the added drama that they could be lying to get you out the hot seat.

Or could have had a ‘wildcard’ that the contestant could use as an extra phone a friend, ask the host, 50:50 or safety net.

The show falls apart when it gets too complicated. A second phone-a-friend is the neatest solution.

Yeah, suppose someone gets to £500,000 with only Ask The Host and Phone a Friend used? They could go 50/50, and then use Double Dip to give two answers. There's only two answers left to pick from, so you're guaranteed to get it right and win the million. Definitely anti-climatic.