'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' Hitting China

HONG KONG, Jan. 26, 2007 — -- Who wants to be a millionaire?

Unless you're a billionaire, probably just about everybody. In mainland China, they are about to get their shot at the "hot seat."

Well, not exactly.

A Dutch company called 2waytraffic holds the rights to the wildly popular "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

It announced Thursday that it had sold a license for China Media Power group to produce an edition in Mandarin. This will mark the show's exposure to the country with the world's largest population and an ever-expanding economy.

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" debuted in the United Kingdom, where it was an astonishing success. When it crossed the pond to the United States, it became a hit for ABC Inc., which is owned by The Walt Disney Co., the parent company of ABC News.

"Millionaire" also became one of the highest earners in TV programming history. And according to the production company, it has broken ratings records in almost every one of the 106 countries that have put the show on the air.

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" Chinese edition will debut in May, but it won't offer any financial windfalls for regular contestants.

Earlier this month, the government put new rules in place to regulate TV shows. Reality shows are a staple in China, but the government has deemed them "vulgar" and has begun a crackdown.

The Shanghai Daily newspaper reported that the Chinese broadcasting monitor was calling for only "ethically inspiring" television shows during primetime, leading up to a major meeting of the ruling Communist Party.

All mainland TV shows must jump through several hoops before they can make their way to the TV sets of potentially 1.3 billion people.

First, the show must be approved by the state media administration and then it must be screened by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party Central Committee. These restrictions go into effect in February and will last for at least eight months, according to a television programming official.