Here in the states, it is Millionaire's 7th season in syndication. With the new season comes new rules (taken from a post on another game show website):

NO MORE 50/50

NO MORE SWITCH THE QUESTION

"Double Dip" from Super Millionaire returns in replacement to 50/50

When you phone a friend, you get to see three photos of your friends and then decide who to choose.

A new lifeline "Ask the Expert" is earned after $1,000 that will feature a guest expert to help you on a question until they came up with a final answer.

There is now a "Millionaire Menu" that will show you the list of categories on your way to a million

ex: (remember the top is for $1,000,000 down to $100)

-Astronomy
-Military
-Asian Geography
-The Breakfast Club
-U.S. Politics
-European History
-Classic TV
-Websites
-Authors
-Rock & Roll
-Classic Films
-Advertisements
-On the Menu
-Food & Drink
-Famous Sayings

Yeah that's about it...

Oh, and there's a timer that ticks down from 15 seconds then 30 then 45 on each question, and if time is up, you automatically walk away... But any time left on the clock will be spent on the $1,000,000 question.

So you have 15 seconds for the lower tier, 30 seconds for the middle tier, and 45 seconds for questions 11-14 of the third tier (with the $1,000,000 question having 45 seconds plus any unused time from the last 14 questions).

Here's a full episode from the first week of the new season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0atfj0JbSI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t26vdZ8nJJM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxJxfIPNWFk

What do you guys think? Do you think this is better than "dance party" Millionaire in the UK?

it seems a bit harsh rushing people to answer the questions.

I totally agree; I don't know how it happens over there for you, but over here in the UK we have machines where you can gamble and play games to win money etc, and one of them is usually found in pubs, and it's WWTBAM, where the questions are very time-restricted to answer the questions.

Long story cut short, this sounds exactly as if you was in thepub playing it for the jackpot of £20

You don't get a real 30 seconds in the pub though, and the time limit isn't that bad, there is some links to some clips of the new show, I will try and post them tomorrow.

I reckon they should bump up those time limits... I say about 20 seconds on the first ones, 40 on the 1k-32k and then, maybe, whatever was left over from previous rounds and gaining on 20 seconds from each question?

yeah, but just think, you can get more contestants done in an episode

apparantely the uk version are gonna do the same thing as this version when it returns tuesday and have a time limit... 15 seconds for the first 2 questions, 30 for the next five, then from 50k they don't have any time limit. AND you'll get a new lifeline which lets you replace one question you're stuck on for another... if you can reach the 50k.

sounds interesting. can't wait

I really like the new UK Millionaire, gets to the interesting bit after £50,000.

US Millionaire with NEW rules debuts today. And it's VERY different. Basically:

- Timer gone. Hotseat gone. Both player and host are standing throughout.
- 14 questions. What happens is there are 4 questions at the top for $100k, $250k, $500k, and $1m. The interesting bit is the 10 before. They're all values from $100 to $25,000. These are all randomised, so each question can be worth anything.
- Getting a question right adds the question value to the bank. At any time before the first 10 questions are over, you can walk away with half of your bank. The maximum you can win on the first 10 questions (by getting them all right) is $68,600.
- A wrong answer before question 11 (the $100k question) makes you leave with $1,000, a wrong answer on Q11 onwards makes you leave with $25k. You cannot leave with nothing anymore.
- There are three lifelines. Ask the Audience is the only one which has made the cut. The other two are the same lifeline twice: skip the question. You advance one question but you can't earn that amount.
- If you make it to Q11 with one or more skips, you can use them on the later questions, but obviously you can't skip the million dollar question.
- Also there's a new music/graphics package.

It's very different, but I like the look of it. If you're a bit confused, you can play it online to see how it goes. It's simpler than it sounds.

I like it as well, it's pretty interesting because the contestants are under pressure against the clock, and they can't think for too long

the new US version sounds confusing...