Tampa man to appear on 'Millionaire' Sunday

A Tampa man who lost his banking job gets a chance to make some much needed money Sunday night on the 10th anniversary edition of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

Brad Abbey, who works in banking and finance, says that two days after he got laid off in June he went to a casting call at the St. Pete Times Forum.

"I've never tried out for a game show before, but I didn't have to go to work that day so I took a shot," says the 28-year-old Florida State University graduate.

More than 1,000 auditioned in Tampa. Producers were searching the country for 110 people to take part in a two-week special prime-time anniversary celebration of the game.

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" became a sensation in the summer of 1999. It debuted in August that year with a modest 10 million viewers, but within a couple of weeks, it was the top-rated program in prime time.

"I was in high school, and I remember watching it with my family and talking about it at school," says Abbey, who grew up in Ocala. He says he moved to Tampa two years ago and lives in Seminole Heights.

Abbey appears on the kickoff show at 8 p.m. Sunday on ABC. He can't even say whether he gets into the "hot seat" to play for the $1 million prize. He can say that the trip to New York (his first time) was a lot of fun.

And meeting host Regis Philbin was a kick, too. "He was very funny," Abbey says. "He was cracking jokes at every chance. He's very clever."

"I have never been on a game show, but I am good at trivia when I'm out with my friends," Abbey says. "But being on stage with all those lights and an audience and having Regis sitting over there looking at you made me a little nervous."

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which continues in daytime, has been tweaked for this special run.

In a recent telephone news conference, host Philbin said the game show has been improved.

Players now have only 15 seconds to answer the easiest questions, up to 45 seconds for the toughest ones. That speeds up the action. In the original version, the answers were often edited down for broadcast. One woman took 52 minutes to answer a question, and then got it wrong, Philbin recalled.

"Now we have time limits on the answers from the questions, and we have added an expert to the show, a well-known person, probably mostly from the news area," Philbin says.

Those experts include Candy Crowley, Wolf Blitzer, Connie Chung, Sam Donaldson, Gwen Ifill, Ken Jennings, Bill Nye, Cokie Roberts and George Stephanopoulos.

The show has brought back celebrities who will be on for just one question at each show's conclusion. If they answer a single question correctly, their charity earns $50,000.

Those celebrities include mostly stars from ABC or Disney-owned programs: Patricia Heaton of ABC's new sitcom "The Middle," TV host Rachael Ray, Sherri Shepherd of ABC's "The View," Vanessa
Williams of ABC's "Ugly Betty," singer Katy Perry and gymnast Shawn Johnson, who won ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

"Millionaire" will run every night - except Fridays and Saturdays - through Sunday, Aug. 23.

Abbey, who is single, is still looking for work. Between his audition and the taping of the game show, he got a temporary gig with a carnival. "I spent a month in Canada working on the midway," he says.

Philbin, who turns 78 on Aug. 25, says he would like to do a summer run of the show every year for as long as he can. "I don't think I can wait for another 10 years," he joked.