Why did the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It attraction close at DCA?

[DodgerGirl]

I have been a fan of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and I was so happy to see that the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It attraction was gonna open in Disney's California Adventure or as I call it DCA in 2001 and I was really lucky to be one of the first contestants to play it and it was my favorite attraction and one of the reasons I went to Disneyland so often between 2001-2004. But a mystery I'll never be able to solve is why did Disney's California Adventure decided to close Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in 2005? Was it because the attraction didn't gain an audience as much as the WDW version did? Or did the show have so many problems that DCA couldn't afford to maintain the upkeep of the stage lights and everything else? Or did the hosts and crew demand bigger salaries? I know that when the show closed the whole set was auctioned off and sold to people and the hosts and crew were forced to work various jobs throughout Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. You would think that with the death of Regis Philbin and the revival of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with Jimmy Kimmel DCA should really bring this show back to honor Regis Philbin in memory
What caused the mysterious closure of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It at Disney's California Adventure?

 

[DodgerGirl]

When I visited Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in DCA I also got the chance to meet some of the hosts and get their autographs and I had such a jolly time talking about Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with the hosts it was like they were old friends of mine and we even kept in touch with our friendships after I left Disneyland. I think Disneyland made a huge mistake closing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in DCA in 2005 because it was truly a neat adaption of the show and Disney parks should design more game show related shows that are interactive for people to see. With the Jimmy Kimmel version a hit Disneyland should really bring back Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It for new fans to enjoy and to honor Regis Philbin as a legend

 

[dina444444]

It closed due to lack of attendance at DCA. The DHS one hung in a little longer until it closed to make way for midway mania.

 

[DodgerGirl]

What a surprise that DCA closed Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It due to low attendance? Because it seemed to be the most popular show of DCA and how weird that the Disney Hollywood Studios version survived because Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was still popular in syndication at the time. I also think why DCA closed Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It was because the show sometimes had ongoing glitches that they would never bother to fix and they couldn't deal with the problems the show would have. When I went there the very first time me and some of the other people who got Ring Of Fire seat tickets got escorted to our seats for the afternoon show and sat there and waited and waited and waited for the show to start until they told us the afternoon show that was scheduled to start had been cancelled due to technical problems and so I had to walk out of there and they made us wait for almost two hours for the very last show of the night and me and the other people were panicking and freaking out and the cast members did not do anything to calm us down. But anyway the last showing was great and had no problems. I don't know why they would make people wait for two hours till the very last showing to see Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It? But as I mentioned in my previous posts a new improved Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It would work wonders for DCA

 

[DodgerGirl]

Why was the preshow with Regis Philbin removed at Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in 2002? Because it was so funny to see Regis Philbin show his comedic talents very well. What I think played a factor in the closure of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in Disney's California Adventure is the fact that they kept adding stuff to improve the show to keep it's juices flowing like changing the New York Regis Philbin Meet And Greet trip to a Disney Cruise as the new million point prize and I think that's what made Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It lose it's audience. Also when I went to Disneyland on my last trip I had a chance to talk to several cast members and they told me that a lot of the hosts were forced to do other jobs or simply just made stage managers. In fact one of the hosts that was my best friend was forced to sell Annual Passes for Disneyland and just hosted the show part time. But I do wish Disney's California Adventure had not closed Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It because it deserved better promotion than the Disney Hollywood Studios version did

 

[Evita_W]

Why was the preshow with Regis Philbin removed at Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in 2002? Because it was so funny to see Regis Philbin show his comedic talents very well. What I think played a factor in the closure of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in Disney's California Adventure is the fact that they kept adding stuff to improve the show to keep it's juices flowing like changing the New York Regis Philbin Meet And Greet trip to a Disney Cruise as the new million point prize and I think that's what made Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It lose it's audience. Also when I went to Disneyland on my last trip I had a chance to talk to several cast members and they told me that a lot of the hosts were forced to do other jobs or simply just made stage managers. In fact one of the hosts that was my best friend was forced to sell Annual Passes for Disneyland and just hosted the show part time. But I do wish Disney's California Adventure had not closed Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It because it deserved better promotion than the Disney Hollywood Studios version did

My understanding is that he was removed because of contractual issues.

The attraction was closed because of the amount of money it was costing at DCA. Remember DLR is mostly locals and there were quite a few people that went to every show or close to it and learned a lot of the questions as well as patterns, making it easier for them to win or at least get to very high levels and the number of passholders attending made it very hard for anyone else to have a shot.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in DCA was closed due to issues? I never knew that because it seemed to be a good show that got promoted and the hosts were so funny and friendly and it was a happy show. My mother also told me that DCA even had Mickey Mouse dressed as a host to honor Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It that did meet and greets but I never saw Mickey there. But another thing I couldn't figure out is why weren't the hosts allowed to give autographs or meet and greets with the contestants after the shows? I figured that they would also be considered important like the characters were and they had protocol that only allowed them to talk to contestants playing in the Hot Seat. Was this due to rules?

 

[DodgerGirl]

Why was the Million Point prize changed to a Disney Cruise Line cruise rather than the New York Meet And Greet with Regis Philbin on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It at DCA? That could also have played a factor in the show's sudden closing at DCA. Disney should develop more interactive game show attractions similar to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It for DCA? Like an interactive version of Press Your Luck or maybe even The Chase. Would that be cool?

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think one of my favorite memories of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It was when I was there in 2003 and the show had just ended for the day and Mom and I were waiting for Dad to pick us up and suddenly I heard Dad and a stage manager talking and Mom and I were clueless to know what was going on and so a few seconds later Dad ushered me outside and there was the host of the show I just saw and I melted into his arms and my heart was so full of happiness and I asked the host how we were able to meet and he told me that Dad was the one who arranged the meet specially for me. And then we talked for hours about Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and the host said I was the best player ever on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It and then we ended the meet and greet with an autograph and a photo. The host then offered me an invitation to the next show he was gonna host but I declined because I was so tired and I had to return to rest but it was such a cute and adorable meeting and the host was so cute and such a gentleman. But that memory of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It i'll treasure forever always in my heart

 

[DodgerGirl]

My dad and I were discussing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It last night and what he thought the reason for the closure was that DCA didn't promote the show well enough and what I think DCA should've done was replace the Disney Cruise Line trip prize with a prize to anywhere in America such as San Francisco or even Phoenix Arizona and they should replaced the preshow with a Meredith Veira hosted preshow and had other prizes to win besides pins. I think the biggest thing that they could've done was replace the Ring Of Fire questions with Millionaire themed trivia questions instead of having questions like "What color is the monorail that's passing by?" and so on and another thing was that they should've let the hosts come out and meet everyone in the audience after the show was over because in an actual game show that's what the hosts are supposed to do when an episode is over and the credits roll. But they did not do this for some reason. I think Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It had shown promise for DCA but I think had they promoted it well it would've stayed alive for DCA

 

[DodgerGirl]

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It should've NEVER closed at DCA because this is one show that was like a actual game show and DCA and Disneyland need more interactive game show styled shows because this one was very special and unique and we need more shows like it to come to DCA or Disneyland in the future. I mainly think Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It closed at DCA because they didn't give the hosts enough money to do each show. Another thing I found shocking was that the hosts also doubled as stage managers too and I used to find that weird because I always thought that the stage managers were different and the hosts were different but now I learned that each host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire had to do double duty on each show. Did you get to meet any hosts when you went to see Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It in DCA like I did?

 

[DodgerGirl]

My mom and I were discussing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It at dinner today and what my mom thinks caused DCA to close Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It was ABC in general and my mom thought ABC paid a lot of money to have DCA promote Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It and I think what REALLY caused the closure of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It was not lack of attendance in my eyes but how expensive it cost DCA to run the show? Because when you saw it you could tell Disney put a lot of expense into making the show look authentic like a actual Who Wants To Be A Millionaire episode shown on TV. But I think it was the prizes like the polo shirts the baseball caps and pins and as I mentioned in my earlier post the big prize of the taping of a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire episode and later a Disney Cruise Line cruise and what I saw of it was the beginning of the show's demise because why the million-point prize was changed to the cruise was simply a way for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It to promote a commercial for Disney Cruise Line and they should've switched the prize to a family vacation anywhere like Phoenix Arizona or Seattle Washington or Texas and that would've kept the show alive in my opinion. But I think the main problems with the show were the host management and the show itself. Because as I mentioned I never figured out why the hosts sometimes were stage managers and they doubled as hosts in the later showings of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It and to me that was odd and the show would have glitches and always would cancel shows and they never told guests the reasons why the show was cancelled. But they should've given all the guests even the Ring Of Fire players parting gifts for participating in each showing and that would've worked and saved the show. I would LOVE to see this show make a comeback to DCA someday because even though Regis Philbin is gone Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It was a cool show for DCA and they should bring it back in memory of Regis

 

[DodgerGirl]

During it's run how many million point winners did the DCA Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It have? I am curious to know? I think DCA did a very wrong move in closing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It and as I mentioned a lot they should've kept it open because even though Regis Philbin is gone and the syndicated version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is cancelled Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is a classic game show of the 90's. But DCA should design a similar attraction with Press Your Luck especially since Press Your Luck's revival with Elizabeth Banks is extremely popular now. I wonder why game show type attractions like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It aren't considered for DCA?

 

[DodgerGirl]

Now that the reboot of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with Jimmy Kimmel is a hit for ABC DCA should really seriously think about reviving the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It attraction in a new format with the Jimmy Kimmel styled gameplay. But for some reason DCA seems to have no interest in game show attractions. If the return of Captain EO worked for Disneyland when Michael Jackson died in 2009 why couldn't the same thing work for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It when Regis Philbin passed away in 2020

 

[DodgerGirl]

I found an interesting video about the actual reason why the DCA version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It closed on Youtube and it was very informative. According to the video when Disney's California Adventure first opened in 2001 one of the main reasons why DCA decided to have Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It because after they saw how successful the Disney Hollywood Studios version became Disney thought they could do the same thing in DCA to help the park survive and it was a big gamble. And so when they opened their version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It on September 14th 2001 Disney thought it would indeed help the struggling DCA. And for the first week it was open it was a huge monster hit but unfortunately in the following months since it opened it recieved poor reviews and I think 9/11 was to blame because people didn't go on vacation much after that. And so DCA thought of ways to improve Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It to grant a better audience to it which they failed. I also learned that the Phone A Complete Stranger didn't really work and DCA gave guests who were helpers for the Phone A Complete Stranger lifeline a rule to only use the phone outside of the attraction and not call from a cell phone or pay phone and some people did that. The reason why the Regis Philbin introduction video was removed from the show in 2002 was because Regis was unhappy with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It and he wanted to have a major role besides doing the intro before each show. The original New York million point prize Disney never gave to winning contestants because they were never given any other info regarding show taping days and lodging and airfare info and so that's why the DCL cruise was now the new million-point prize. ABC had high hopes to promote the DCA version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It and during the Very Merry Christmas Parade of 2002 Meredith Veira went on a short behind the scenes tour of the attraction and was planning to move filming of the syndicated version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire to DCA. But the reason why the DCA Who Wants To Be A Millionaire closed was simply due to low audience of DCA visitors in 2004. But since that reason DCA has never had another game show attraction since. But it's a good video if you get to watch it on Youtube

 

[PattiPB]

I literally just found all of the pins and swag I won on WWTBAM way back when. I made it to the next to the last question for the Disney Cruise before I lost. Any ideas if there is something I can do with all the pins and swag? It's a big bag!!!