| abstract
| - A BBC game show (produced as a tie-in with the British National Lottery) from the people who brought you Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The game started with 49 numbered players (the Thunderball lottery draw which aired during the show had 49 balls), who played an elimination game based on questions with numerical answers. If a contestant thought their number was the answer to the question asked, they could buzz in. The player with the correct answer advanced to the next round, but only if they buzzed in. Those who guessed incorrectly were eliminated. This process continued until 6 players remained. Viewers whose telephone numbers contained all 6 of the "ones" digits of the advancing players could register to become a contestant on a future episode too. Then came the next round, "Looking After Number 1", where the field would be reduced to one player. A question was asked on the buzzer whose answer was one of the numbers of the remaining players. If a contestant answered correctly, the contestant with that number would be eliminated. If the player with the matching number guesses correctly, they're saved. Wrong answers eliminated the person who guessed. This was repeated until one remained, who got to "activate" the Thunderball drawing, and then play the Wonderwall bonus round for a chance to win progressively better trips (ranging from bed and breakfast at Spaghetti Junction to a trip "around the world") by answering questions with one of 49 answers on a giant video screen in three minutes. Winning Lines ran for six series on BBC One, hosted by Simon Mayo from 1999-2000, and Phillip Schofield from 2001-04. To cash in on a recent renaissance of primetime high-stakes game shows triggered by Millionaire in the United States, Winning Lines came stateside in 2000 for CBS, with the hosting role filled by veteran television personality Dick Clark. The show was a faithful adaptation nonetheless, sans Lottery cross-promotion, but now with an almost lottery-sized grand prize of $1,000,000! Unfortunately, it was Too Good to Last and only managed to get 10 episodes in before being pulled due to low ratings.
- OPENING SPIEL: And now, the biggest game show EVER to hit prime time: WINNING LINES! And here's your host, DICK CLARK! Winning Lines was the big money quizzer based on the British series which came to pass due to the success of ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which itself also came from Britain and was also co-produced by Celador).
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