“Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” with Emmy Award-winning host Meredith Vieira will honor The Great White Way next week with “Broadway Giveaway Week,” airing December 19 – 23, 2011. Check local listings or go to http://www.millionairetv.com for time and channel.
To kick off the week, Millionaire will host the two lead actors from the hit Broadway musical Mary Poppins as contestants on the show Monday, December 19. Steffanie Leigh (Mary Poppins) and Gavin Lee (Bert) will play Millionaire as a two-person team and will donate their winnings to The Actors Fund, a national human services organization that helps professionals in performing arts and entertainment in times of need, crisis or transition. The duo is guaranteed to win a minimum of $5,000 for The Actors Fund.
A native of England where “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” first debuted in 1998, Gavin Lee said “It’s such an honor to have been asked to come on to this iconic show and play for an amazing charity.”
Throughout “Broadway Giveaway Week,” Millionaire contestants will be asked one Broadway-themed question during gameplay. If they answer correctly, they will win tickets to a Broadway performance of Mary Poppins or The Lion King for themselves as well as members of the studio audience.
Earlier this fall, Meredith Vieira visited the Mary Poppins stage and appeared as a chimney sweep in two dance numbers during a live performance on Broadway (October 20, 2011). Of her Broadway experience, Vieira joked, “The theater doesn’t have the bug for me, but I have the bug for the theater!” She elaborated and said “It was a dream come true for me … to actually be on stage, with the audience, was an amazing experience. Every single performer made a point of coming up and saying ‘good luck.’ It felt like such a collaborative show. It really was very, very special.”
“Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” with host Meredith Vieira is currently in its tenth season. Vieira has hosted the daytime version of Millionaire since the show debuted in 2002. She is a multi Emmy Award-winner and has won two Daytime Emmys for her work on Millionaire (2005 and 2009). Throughout her ten seasons on the show, Vieira has hosted over 1,800 episodes and handed out more than $70 million in winnings to Millionaire contestants. Millionaire is produced by Valleycrest Productions Ltd. and is distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. Rich Sirop is the executive producer. In addition to serving as the host of the show, Meredith Vieira serves as co-executive producer. Visit Millionaire’s website at MillionaireTV.com.
