With the overall audience for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire down 16 percent and its audience of 18-49-year-olds down 25 percent, the producer of the show has scheduled a number of changes, the New York Times reported today (Monday). Among the modifications being considered: open recruitment of contestants rather than the present method of selection by phone-in quiz. "We are seriously looking at throwing out our whole contestant selection process," producer Michael Davies told the Times. He said he was particularly concerned that the show was "attracting an inordinate number of teachers, lawyers and, especially, computer technicians." Alex Wallau, president of ABC, indicated that the current ratings are sometimes falling below the numbers that had been promised to advertisers. "If the ratings continue at the level they've been at, we will have make-good problems," Wallau told the Times.

Source: Studio Briefing