Million Dollar Challenge: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Million Dollar Challenge is a poker game show where amateur poker players attempt to defeat celebrities, professional poker players and, eventually, Daniel Negreanu in order to win the show's grand prize, $1 million. In the first round, the amateur (with Negreanu at their side, acting as their coach and lending advice) must defeat a celebrity such as Jayde Nicole, Jerome Bettis, Joanna Krupa, John Salley or Tito Ortiz. If the contestant is able to defeat the celebrity the contestant wins a trip to the Bahamas and advances to the second round. In the second round, the amateur (with Negreanu now helping them from a sound proof booth, giving them advice through a listening device in the amateur's ear) must defeat a professional poker player such as Vanessa Rousso, Barry Greenstein, Joe Cada or Chris Moneymaker. If the contestant is able to defeat the professional the contestant wins $25,000 in addition to the trip to the Bahamas. At this point, the amateur has a decision to make. Keep the money and walk away $25,000 richer, or risk the money (the trip is still theirs to keep) and play Daniel Negreanu heads-up for $100,000, knowing that if they lose they walk away with nothing but the trip to the Bahamas. In the season finale, the champions from each episode compete against each other in a sit-n-go tournament, the winner of which plays Negreanu for $1 million.

Series details

• Title: Million Dollar Challenge
• Format: Game Show
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 2009-10-11
• Final broadcast date listed: 2010-12-12
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: FOX
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 37963
• TVDB ID: 118741

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2009-10-11; final listed air date 2009-12-27.
• Season 2: premiered 2010-09-19; final listed air date 2010-12-12.

Source and licence

Adapted from Million Dollar Challenge on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.