Exactly what Monday nights at 8:30pm needed – another game show. Not. Yet here we are. I challenge the assertion that just because it’s a highly successful format in an overseas market that by giving it a lick of paint and getting Eddie McGuire to host it will make it as successful or relevant in this market. The sadder indictment is that we’re for some reason getting TWO episodes of Two and a Half Men beforehand… perhaps to bleed out the remaining new series eps ASAP?

Is this something that interests you? Really? REALLY?

But then I could just be totally missing the market for this kind of prime-time game show. Or I’m so right that right now I’m blowing your mind with my rightness (oh yeah, I went there – rightness).  Just make sure you confirm the number of security guards required before you send us the info next time, please. From the press release:

Australians are set to get a taste of the latest game show taking the world by storm when The Million Dollar Drop, hosted by Eddie McGuire, premieres on Channel Nine at 8.30pm on Monday, March 21.

Based on the highly successful UK format, The Million Dollar Drop is a drama-packed game show that keeps contestants and audiences on the edge of their seats. Two contestants work as a team to take on one of the most difficult challenges of their lives – keeping ONE MILLION DOLLARS in real cash, tantalisingly stacked up in front of them as they begin.

Each team must face eight questions which have optional answers – and get eight answers right to win up to $1 million.

For the first question, they have to risk the entire $1 million. They can plonk it all on one answer, or spread it over three of four options. If they get this answer right, they go on risking all their money on subsequent questions until they reach the eighth and final one.

There are only two optional answers for the last question. In a sudden-death decision, all the cash remaining has to go on one answer. If it’s correct, the contestants take home up to $1 million.

The Million Dollar Drop is a high-stakes heart-stopper full of nail-biting tension. To add to the drama, money placed on wrong answers disappears literally before the contestants’ eyes – plunging down the Money Drop.

Eddie McGuire will take the reins of this gripping one-hour game show which is produced by Southern Star at Docklands Studios in Melbourne.

“There are a lot of shows these days that offer the chance for contestants to work their way up to a million bucks, but this is the only program where the participants start with a million in cash, right before their eyes,” McGuire said.

“If they play their cards right, they walk away with one million big ones. It’s as simple as that.”

The set for The Million Dollar Drop is one of the largest ever constructed for a game show in Australia, filling much of the 950 square metre studio.

Contestants are perched on a deck four metres off the ground. The audience is elevated even higher, with the top row of seating a vertigo-inducing 5.4 metres high.

It took a team of 65 workers 10 days to assemble the set, which weighs in at more than 12 tonnes.

Eight (confirm number) security guards are on set at all times during filming, keeping a careful eye on the $1 million.

The Million Dollar Drop is now broadcasting in more than 15 countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia and Israel.

The Million Dollar Drop – Mon 21/3 8.30pm,  Ch9.