Super Millionaire Produces Big Winners

ABC’s revamped Super Millionaire is only two nights old and the show has already had two big winners.

Monday night, 33-year-old Robert Essig won $1 million. Essig used his three "lifelines," for outside help, to answer the $100,000, $500,000, and $1 million questions correctly. Essign ultimately walked away from the $2.5 million question.

The show’s first night won the evening, drawing an average audience of 17.5 million viewers and a 5.7 rating/13 share in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen’s fast affiliate ratings. During that show, 31-year-old Todd Kim won $500,000.

ABC has brought back Super Millionaire for five nights during February sweeps. In the new version, contestants can win a $10 million grand prize, up from $1 million when the program was a prime time staple three years ago.

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.