The game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has made Bulgaria the 68th country where it keeps people on the edge of their seats.

Get Rich is the Bulgarian version of one of the world's most popular game shows. Since May 12 it has aired on Nova TV every weekend. Presently, the show is on its summer break, but starting September 17 it will be broadcast every weekday. The appeal of watching somebody winning or losing a huge amount of money is exciting enough, but the producers stress that it's not just big winnings that provide nail-biting entertainment.

"The all-time favourite game of questions and answers and all the fun situations around it are what create most of the game's charm," said Niki Kunchev, the game's host in Bulgaria. Forty-year-old Kunchev is himself among the greatest assets of the show. The leading Bulgarian journalist won a contest for the position, and simultaneously continues to work at the private radio station Darik.

The show offers 30 minutes of intelligence testing, tension, and laughs. In the game, contestants are faced with 15 multiple choice questions of increasing difficulty, as they make their way up to the 100,000 leva level. Players can choose to walk away at any time with what they've won. The only requirements of potential participants are that they are adults and do not have a criminal record.

The first five questions presented to contestants are fun and easy - the host helps the players and jokes with them. The middle five questions are more difficult and Kunchev only heats up the atmosphere. The last five are the most difficult, where the host steps back and just watches the players' reactions, along with the audience.

There are three helpers, or lifelines, that can be used once each. The first one is "50-50," where a computer narrows the answer down from four to two options. The second is "call a friend" - the contestant can phone a friend for the answer to the question. "This is extremely interesting, as the friend may get more excited than the contestants themselves," said Kunchev. The third is "ask the audience." As the audience includes the other contestants, their opinion is quite reliable. "The audience has never been wrong so far," said Kunchev.

He said the game is unique because it is the first big show to come to Bulgaria of the new generation of games, such as Survivor (where 16 contestants are stranded on an island for 39 days) and Big Brother (where 12 people are isolated in a house and have their lives broadcast live to an international audience). "The action in Get Rich is in the psychology sphere, and features a huge sum." It is a very large-scale project, with fantastic organization, he said.

Get Rich is filmed in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, as the show has no studio in Bulgaria. The episodes are recorded in the studio of the Romanian version, Who Wants To Be A Billionaire? This will change as of September 17, when the show will start being filmed in Sofia, in a special studio, which is currently being built.

So far, the largest sum won has been 50,000 leva - by recent American University in Bulgaria graduate Liubomir Milushev from Bourgas. Another player, Maria Todorova from Sofia, won 25,000 leva, and five or six other participants have won 2,500 leva. Even if they don't win anything, they get an all-expenses paid trip to Bucharest. "Plus, all the people are very smart and very fun, and they have a great time and find good friends," Kunchev said.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? began in September 1998 in the UK and was created by Celador International Ltd. It was broadcast on ITV during prime time and immediately topped the ratings and broke the ratings records of other shows and games on BBC. The largest prize - one million British pounds - has already been won twice. The U.S. is the record-holder of the most winners of the $1 million top prize with eight.

At the end of 2000, the Bulgarian company SIA Advertising bought the rights for the show in Bulgaria. SIA Advertising also produces Djubox and the art/culture show Krugove on Kanal 1, and bTV's culinary show Vkusno.

Get Rich was the highest rated broadcast on Nova TV for June and July. Although in June, Nova TV was stripped of its national licence, SIA Advertising has no plans to change anything or to break the contract with the TV station. "That's bad, as the game cannot reach as many people," said Kunchev. "Still, many people can watch us via cable and people are really into the game."

For the second half of May, and all of June and July, 50,000 people had called for participation, with larger numbers on the weekends. "People stop me in the streets to talk to me about the show, and tell me how they play along and where they have failed," said Kunchev.