Sara Polo Madrid
Madrid
Updated Monday, April 1, 2024-21:28
TV The return of 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' in the middle of Covid: set up a set in two weeks and test the entire public
In the chair, a contestant in a flowery outfit. Smiling, very smiling. Before him, a question and four possible answers. The set of
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
rises imposingly.
, even from afar, behind the scenes of screens, cables, cameras and cranes that turn a moment of wisdom into visual magic. Six people watch the scene sitting on a sofa. They watch the questions on the television screen and quietly encourage the contestant, there on the set:
"Come on, mark it!"
.
Rubén and Concha are the most excited. They search and search for the correct answers on their mobile. Concha puts on her glasses when she looks into the distance, she takes them off for Google. The boss,
Isabel Navarro
, leaves satisfied: "How well you did it."
Each contestant is their own work, as they say
. They have spoken with them a thousand times, they have given them as many tests by video call, they have calibrated their intellectual options and their telegenicity. Casting is just a small piece in
the
impressive machinery of the television contest that changed small screen contests forever.
"You just said you were damn sure 30 seconds ago!" This Tuesday,
Juanra Bonet
once again takes charge of a format that
has been in preparation for months, is recorded in a week
and will be broadcast in
prime time
on laSexta with a double edition:
anonymous and famous
.
Silvia Abril
,
José Mota
,
Paco León
,
Eva Soriano
,
Máximo Huerta
and
Ainhoa Arteta
will be some of the well-known faces who will face the four options.
"Picadito, picadito," orders are heard on set through headphones, "two, two, three, three." They come from production control, in a very narrow truck outside the building. Impossible to put all that equipment in a studio. This is
Elías Segovia
, director of
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
He has the final say in selecting the contestants, who undergo a very long selection process before sitting before the panel.
"Four or five months can pass from the first call," says Segovia, "we go into detail because, in the end, the difference is in subtlety, in having various ages, origins, specialized knowledge...". Participate in
Who wants to be a millionaire?
It involves much more than being smart, you have to have a story to tell, a presence in front of the camera. What differentiates this format from other contests is the internal speech,
the contestant reflecting aloud her answer is the hook that has conquered millions of viewers around the world
.
And for that, you have to pass dozens of tests and interviews. Those who come to the set have already played, in reality, many times.
"Yes, we do almost, almost a psychoanalysis on them
," the director concedes. For the team, the crown jewel is the "virgin" contestant, the one who has never been on television. "The set is prepared so that the entire liturgy of the program is imposed on you: the lights, that silence, the solitude in front of the presenter..." explains Yolanda Martín, executive producer of the contest.
Despite all that preparation, each contestant is a surprise. "Sometimes someone with a lot of self-confidence, very smart, comes to the set and sinks, or the other way around, someone who is more timid comes up and shoots a triple, and another, and another," describes the director,
"they laugh at me when I say it, but this is more difficult than opposing the judiciary
. "
The person in charge of directing these answers from the contestant is a
Juanra Bonet
reduced to the minimum expression... or not. "Whether the person in front of me is famous or anonymous is only relevant in the greeting, to the person who sits in front of the screen everyone becomes a person full of doubts. It doesn't matter if you are the best contestant on
Pasapalabra
, that set "It leaves you in your underwear," he says.
He himself is often a victim of doubt. The presenter has to bite his tongue a lot not to shout: "Mark the B!" "Yes and no," he puts the matter to rest. "
When you read the question you think you know it, but then the options come and it's not so clear anymore
. When the contestant doubts you go into a tailspin. Here you even doubt his last name."
For him, the key to the success of a program that was born in the United Kingdom in 1998 and, since then, has not stopped succeeding season after season, is in
the simplicity of its mechanics
: "15 questions, three wild cards, one million euros , you can summarize what it's about in a single sentence," he argues. But also in the simplicity of its image: "At a time when television is pure stimulation, bursts, drone cameras, complicated tests, and I say this as I have presented contests with bombs and have worked on Ferris wheel sets,
this is a small oasis of very short shots of two gentlemen looking at each other in which the tension cannot be hidden with anything
. It seems to me to be a revolutionary act," Bonet is excited.
"They look for an anchor anywhere, so my biggest fear is when they tell me through the earpiece to put up my glasses and I'm scared to death"
Juanra Bonet, presenter
He himself has to control
his non-verbal language
down to breathing, any gesture can be interpreted as a clue: "You sit back in the chair, click because you have drunk water, cross your leg and the contestant automatically becomes obsessed with why you did it. They look for an anchor anywhere, so my biggest fear is when they tell me through the earpiece to put up my glasses and I'm scared to death. The internal dialogue of a presenter on
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
is very intense," he says.
What
Juanra Bonet
describes , however, is the ultimate end of a process that began much earlier with the elaboration of the questions.
A team of five scriptwriters prepares an initial proposal
; Afterwards, a
fact checking
department
made up of specialists in Humanities, Sciences and Linguistics carries out new verifications. Every day, scriptwriters and executive team review the new pyramids so that the whole is balanced: "We try not to repeat any theme because
the trick is that the contestant finds himself at some point outside his comfort zone
," explains the director. .
Throughout the morning two contestants pass through the chair. Both resort to wild cards in the first section of the pyramid, with unequal results. "It's where everyone gets the most nervous, even if the questions are apparently simple," alleges Yolanda Ramos. Access to Wikipedia has led to the old wild card of the set call. Who would
Juanra Bonet
take with her ? Answer, here yes, without hesitation for a second: "To Javier Cansado. He is cultured, very funny and a very good companion. He would give me the answer and give me a farewell joke."
It's not a bad formula for the nerves
.