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Millionaire No. 4

Unlike those mumskis over at CBS, the publicity department at ABC is always eager to let the press know whenever one of the contestants on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" runs the table. TV Barn has just gotten word from ABC that another $1 million winner — the fourth, by my count, since the show launched last August — will be minted on Tuesday night's telecast.

A press release is forthcoming.

Pick to click

As Regis Philbin and his "$64,000 Question" remake have proven, the best game-show concepts are usually the oldest. Now comes another case in point: Lifetime's "Who Knows You Best?" (9 and 9:30 a.m. weekdays, Lifetime), in which "The Newlywed Game" meets the girlfriends.

The concept couldn't be simpler: Two women who've known each other for years are asked to predict how the other would respond to various questions, from the mundane ("Ice cream — or fat-free yogurt?") to the embarrassing ("During which presidential administration did X lose her virginity?"). Three teams compete; the pair that score the most points play a lightning round.

Prizes aren't much — certainly no $1 million jackpot. But "Who Knows You Best?" is highly watchable thanks to contestants who don't take themselves too seriously and a host, Gina St. John, who's nimble with the ad lib.

A "Survivor's" tale

B.B. Andersen didn't become a successful contractor by overlooking the small details. So when I reached him last week in New York during a whirlwind one-day media tour to promote "Survivor," the show America watched him get tossed off the night before, B.B. had been keeping count. "Yours is the forty-third interview I've had today," he told me.

But the opinionated 64-year-old man from the Kansas City area now admits he may have been minding to the minutiae while missing the big picture during his brief stay on "Survivor" isle.

Read my article from Tuesday's Kansas City Star

On this date...

in 1998, "Saturday Night Live" devotes an entire show to the past contributions of the late Phil Hartman, recently killed by his wife in a murder-suicide. -- Tom Heald

Previously at TV Barn:

On the wires:

 

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