Jimmy's Millionaire

Few things in life are inevitable, but ABC's reboot of Millionaire comes pretty close.

After the network's Jeopardy special romped and stomped in the ratings, the Alphabet Net (warning, Variety speak) was almost required to rewind Millionaire. It took a few years, but the money tree quizzer made it back to broadcast prime time last night.

Jimmy Kimmel hosted the new version and he finally got to answer a question, after all those long-ago years of watching Ben Stein respond to tricky queries. That's because the virus stripped the show of a studio audience, so the "Ask the Audience" lifeline became "Ask the Host." I'll spoil the suspense by saying that Jimmy nailed his rather obscure pop culture question with no sweat.

Everything else on the reboot worked pretty well, too. Each celeb player got to use help from a friend on the first ten questions. That really didn't make much difference for Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet, the first guy in the hot seat. He tucked away $125,000 for an autism charity. (The series finale of Modern Family led into Millionaire. ABC execs couldn't resist that pairing.)

The set was a nice updating of the Regis version, with the dramatic lighting that Jimmy touted in what can only be called his opening monologue. I was a little afraid that our late night host might yuk it up too much with the celebs, but Jimmy kept his worst impulses under control. The result was a classically entertaining version of a classic format.

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