For the 10th Anniversary ABC shows, as well as tryouts and video submissions...

Hmm, this is interesting news. Except that they could choose any number of potential contestants from the phone game (i.e. 0). Perhaps there should be a bit more transparency there on how many spots are open?

My understanding is 6 of the shows will contain JUST contestants from the phone game and 5 of the shows will be from auditions. Back in the prime time days when they had both the phone game and auditions at the same time, they never intermixed the two. The shows were just audition player or telephone player shows.

I'm a bit of a video novice, but I'm gonna try my hand at a video submission. (Actually, my wife will hold the camera and I'll ham it up.)

Cool, the phone game is back! (B))

--Charlie

Reminder: Phone lines are now open starting tonight.

And I'm already 0 for 1.

Question for the mods -- are we allowed to discuss what we were asked/botched.

And if anyone's successful, knowing what the tape dates are would be nice.


--Mike

I played it for fun today - made it to the third question. From what I've heard, it seems to be a fairly difficult test.

I also only made it through question 3. Geography questions with only a slight point of reference are not my strong point. For the record, Plymouth, Mass is above NYC. I did not know that. New England is just a blur for me. 9 more shots, I suppose.

And here's the tape date info pulled from the contest rules:

CONTEST DAY
(from 7 PM ET to 3 AM ET the following day) TAPE DATES AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION
July 6, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 7, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 8, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 9, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 10, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 11, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 12, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 13, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 14, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5
July 15, 2009 July 29, 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 5

So it's July 29-31 and August 3-5 for those without the aid of graphing calculators.

I got to the second question. Will share the questions if so allowed.

Since I can't play, I thought I'd give it a few spins for fun. (Man, does that bring back the sweaty palms of 10 years ago!) A couple of observations and, as always, YMMV...
It does feel like the overall level of the questions is tougher than in the old phone game. Out of 5 or 6 tries, I only made it to the fifth question once, and was surprised at how obscure (in terms of specialized knowledge) that 5th question was.
It seems like the "differences" between some of the answers is slighter than in the past. Without being specific, I bombed out on a question about when songs first appeared on the Top 40. The two songs that I transposed debuted on the chart 4 months apart. I don't ever recall a distinction quite that small on the old phone game.
It also felt like the answers were being read more quickly this time--or perhaps I'm just old and can't write as fast.

I'm not eligible, but I heard and read something from numerous people and I was wondering if anyone here got it. Some people called 10-15 minutes after 7PM and entered their info. the game told them it wasn't going on. It told them to call again later and that this call wouldn't count as their one-a-day entry. They tried an hour or so later and it told them they already used their entry for the day.

I played my funsies game shortly after 7 and it went off without a hitch.

Nope, it was kind of ridiculous.

I called around 10PM EDT last night and got through with no problem. And for the first time in 10 years, I got all 5 questions correct! I chose July 30th as a tape date. Now, it's up to the random gods to pick my name out of the people who also got the 5 questions correct and chose July 30 as a tape date.

Josh

Dang it, I forgot to call last night. Added it to my Google Calendar for the rest of the open period.

Seems a bit worrisome that every phone-in date "winnar" can choose any of the six available tape dates. IIRC the tape date selections 10 years ago were a bit more limited and staggered based on when the winnar called in, but I could be wrong. Whatever the result, the odds seem astronomical.

I don't see how the odds would be any different due to the way the tape date is chosen. Ultimately, you still have X number of winners and Y number of tape dates. If anything, from the sound of things it's harder than ever to beat the phone game. That plus, frankly, there hasn't been a lot of promotion this time around, suggests to me that the pool of winners ought to be smaller than ever.

Anyone able to get any questions tonight? I enter my birthday and social and nothing happens. No message, no nothing, just silence.

Should have held on. Same thing happened to me, but eventually I got the rules and regs and, eventually, the questions.

/well, one of the questions at least

I didn't even get a chance to answer a single question...and it was my own fault. I have a cordless phone w/speaker phone, and assuming that if I put the handset on the cradle, the speaker would come on the base unit, instead of the handset. Unfortunately, the phone hung up, just after I entered my info. I tried to call back, but when it hung up, it also hung my chances of playing for that day. In other words...

Once you enter your info, don't hang up! Otherwise, you will have to wait until 7PM tomorrow to play the phone game.

And my rest of the week got some free time. I qualified.


--Mike

Note: There's a web version of the phone game, but it is only for those who cannot use a phone. It's not for fun. The link to the computer game from Millionaire's phone game page is here.

--Charlie

I'm ineligible for the show, but decided to play just for shiggles.

Good thing, because I'm now 0-2, making it to the second question, something about arranging movie songs in order of release, starting with the earliest. I figured out three of them, but do not know what the hell Into the West is from.

/Oh. No wonder I didn't know.
//For the record, the other three songs were 1. Gangsta's Paradise, 2. Against All Odds, and 3. The Rose

Yeah, same here. The phone game is certainly an ego killer. I'm sure I could pass the modern audition test but by God if it was still all Fastest Finger all the time, I'd never make it on.

I hit one question yesterday, two questions today. Messed up on a movie Q this time. 0 for 2.

/I told you I suck at this!

I got to question #5 which was putting reality TV shows in order, which I proceeded to screw up since I'd never heard of one of them... I can't get upset about that. Question 4 was putting traditional anniversary gifts in order-it pays to read those freebie Hallmark calendars!

Matt

I screwed up on a question about Pixar films; having never heard of Up.

Good lord, really?

Be kind. Iowa theaters just started showing Monsters, Inc. this past holiday weekend.

My wait time was about 15 seconds between entering the last 4 of my social and hearing the rest of the spiel. Be patient. I almost hung up but it's most certainly a lost cause as soon as you do that.

I think it's interesting how they're using the same phone system since the show started 10 years ago. I imagine the interns dusting off a late '90s-era server, firing it up, and crossing fingers.

I got to #2 last night (flipped two inventions in terms of which came first), and got to #4 tonight, which was on arranging classes of Japanese people in order of importance, but I forgot it was HIGH-LOW, not LOW-HIGH. Whoops! :(

Anyway, is anyone else shocked at how fast the answers are being read? My hand hurts from trying to write fast enough to keep up and still give myself enough idea what the question and answers were!

Oh, well...there's always tomorrow (third time's the charm!)

Anthony

I forgot to call Monday night, so Tuesday night was my first shot. I got to Q4, but it was putting recent novels in order of publication. Of course, it had to be literature, my weakest suit. Gotta try again.



Dean

/. o O ( The Pop-up recaps may return! )

Almost qualified last night, but got tripped up on the final question...had to put 4 artists in order by DOB, starting w/earliest, and having only heard of one in the batch, I attempted to make an educated guess, but it was no go.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

I just tried. I screwed up the order of Levi's and London Fog on question 3 (Levi Strauss is older, I flipped the order because I didn't know how old London Fog was).

Yes, I thought the questions were read faster than ever.

...and yes, the phone system brought back memories since it was the exact same recordings for most all of the prompts, reminding me of doing this years ago. :)

I tried again, and actually made it to question five, and messed up there. Despite my ineligibility, I actually felt myself getting amped before wondering just what the hell I would do if I were actually selected. :-P

Question five: Put these four musical artists in order of birth, starting with the earliest... 1. Brandy 2. Prince 3. Seal 4. Eminem...I thought I did 2-3-4-1, which should be the right answer...(1979-1958-1963-1972). Of course, with everything going so fast, I obviously did something wrong.

/Or maybe it was starting with the most recent. :-P

I made it to question #4. I had absolutely no idea and was running out of time, so I put 4-3-2-1 and hoped for the best, but after realizing #1 should have went first as I was punching the numbers in, I realized I was screwed. If I'd have remembered that in time, I would have been right as the order was 1-4-3-2.

You hang up really quickly before they ask you to select a tape date with a sense of satisfaction. ;)

Well, I was One-And-Done tonight.

My July 8th Wipeout - Click if you want to hear it.

(Advisory: MP3 file, ~500 KB. Should stream on most computer systems.)

Oh my.

I am truly an idiot.

Did you fat-finger it or did you truly not know it?

Well, I do have an excuse. I was adding audio capabilities to the blog that my friends and I put together, so I was making sure that everything was recording properly. By the time that happened, I wasn't properly paying attention to the answers.


But the recording worked perfectly!

Woohoo! I got past the five questions tonight! I lucked out with the subject matter this time. I chose 7/29 as my tape date, and it's all up to the luck of the draw now. Wish me luck next week!



Dean

You got it. Go get 'em!

Well, I "made it" to question five tonight, but got tripped up on Girl Scout rankings.

It's Tagalongs, Do-Si-Dos, Thin Mints and THEN Samoas.

No, siree. Thin Mints is always at the end of any list involving cookies. The real question (if allowed) was:

Put these Girl Scouts levels in order, starting with the lowest.
1) Senior
2) Junior
3) Cadette
4) Brownie

Answers:

4) Brownie
2) Junior
3) Cadette
1) Senior

(I said 4-3-2-1)

Your newsletter. I would like to subscribe to it.

(Thin Mints are the better bargain, and delicious, but MAN do Samoas rule. :)

Does NOT approve.

/Wait. What?

Got a half-opened sleeve of Thin Mints sitting on my desk right now. Mmmhmmm.

It's also worth noting there are two bakeries for Girl Scout cookies, and they use two different names.

/Trefoils/Shortbread is pretty good too as a dunking cookie
//Nice to have a Girl Scout in the family

I missed question three on my first attempt, question four on my second attempt, and question five on my third attempt. The most recent had me forgetting that the Canary Islands were near Spain. Still, if the trend continues, I'll have good news tomorrow!

I made it to question three today. Gestation periods? Honestly??