Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Irish game show)

The Irish version was made by Tyrone Productions under license from Celador, the British originators. The stage, music, and format were identical to the original British format. The quizmaster was Gay Byrne, who was famous as the longtime host of The Late Late Show, and was making one of several returns from retirement.

The top prize fell from (IEP) £1 million (€1,269,738) to €1 million after the euro changeover at the beginning of 2002. The prize money was funded by a combination of a premium-rate telephone number which candidates had to ring to be selected as contestants, and £7m from headline sponsor eircell, which was then eircom's mobile phone subsidiary company.^[3] As part of the sale to Vodafone Eircell was rebranded in 2001, as part of this re-brand the series was sponsored by Eircell Vodafone, this was the only use of the Vodafone brand on the series.^[2]

Initially the series aired on Friday and Tuesday night, with the Tuesday night episode split between an episode of the Irish soap opera Fair City. The show had several runs over consecutive Sunday evenings. After two years the initial sponsorship contract ended.

RTÉ and the Irish National Lottery company were in discussion about bring the series back as it had been put on hiatus following the loss of its main sponsor in 2002, the National Lottery said that no decision had been made but it was always a possibility, RTÉ axed the series fully in the summer of 2003 and the series would not be making a return for the 2003–04 season.^[4]

The biggest known winners were Roger Dowds from Glasnevin, who won £250,000 (€317,435) in January 2001,^[5][6], stand-up comedian Paddy Courtney, who won £250,000 in June 2001^[7], and Noel O'Connor from Dublin^[8], who won €250,000 in March 2002, although it is not known if people have won more.