ABC/Craig Sjodin(NEW YORK) — Chris Harrison is synonymous with first impression roses and date cards thanks to The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, but Harrison’s other gig, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is still going strong.
In fact, the brand-new 17th season is being touted as the show’s “$100 million season,” meaning the show will cross that milestone in the cash it’s given away.
The amount is “astounding,” Harrison tells ABC Radio.
“The show gives away so much money,” he says. “I always make the joke that we usually give away more money before our first commercial break than most shows do their entire episode — and it’s true in this year. You know, there was one time we were up to twenty thousand dollars and we hadn’t gotten a commercial yet and I’m like. ‘Wow. Could you get to a million dollars before we get halfway through an episode?’ But it really is life-changing money that we’re giving away.”
Harrison says there’s something else special about the show, which runs all over the country every weekday.
“It was my first foray into daytime TV, and being a part of something so iconic — I mean, The Bachelor is iconic now. But I built that over 17 years, whereas I stepped into Millionaire and it was something that I had watched and been a fan of and it captivated me like it did the rest of the world — sitting there watching Regis [Philbin] every night in his monochromatic look, and the music and the tension.”
Harrison’s still impressed to be following in Philbin’s shoes: “And to walk on that stage, to put it in sports terms, it’s like walking into Yankee Stadium. You know, it’s not lost on me when I walk in that arena and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is it!'”
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