On January 10, 2009, Pat Finn and Maquiel Alejo walked out on the stage of The Big Spin and told their audience that the Big Wheel would spin no more. On January 17, the California Lottery aired its replacement, Make Me A Millionaire.
Four games were played every show:
- Lucky Penny, a three-player expy of The Price Is Right's "Lucky Seven".
- Safe Cracker, a two-player Mystery Box game with a one-shot Bonus Round.
- California Cool, a one-player Mystery Box game with a trivia theme.
- The Millionaire Game, where one person out of a pool of six (none of whom had played the preceding games) were selected to play a "higher/lower" game somewhat like Card Sharks to win the show's progressive jackpot which began at $1,000,000 and increased by $200,000 per show until won; the smallest and largest wins ($1,400,000 and $5,200,000) occurred within a month of each other.
The show ran until July 3, 2010, when it was announced during the credits that this was the last episode, but winners of the show's scratchers would have an opportunity to play a non-televised game of the show. Six days later, it turned out that this actually wasn't supposed to be the final show, and there were another five that were scheduled to air.
Game Show Tropes in use:
- Bonus Round: In Safe Cracker, the winning player chooses whether to stay with their money or play a "half or double" round.
- Consolation Prize: Nobody left with less than $2,000. Originally, various prizes like phones and scooters were given to players before the game began, although later on these were all replaced by various California Lottery scratchers.
- Personnel:
- Game Show Host: Mark L. Walberg, no stranger to the game show genre.
- Lovely Assistant: Liz Hernandez.
- Studio Audience
This show provides examples of:
- Cut Short: Unlike The Big Spin, MMAM ended abruptly with five episodes left unaired and no chance to record a proper Grand Finale. Also a Downer Ending for fans of Spin and game shows in general when the Lottery announced that there would be no replacement whatsoever. The Spin wheel itself is still held by the Lottery, labels intact, and sometimes makes background appearances.
- Episode Code Number: Seasonal numbering, as revealed when the California Lottery's YouTube channel uploaded episodes in April-July 2010 (for example, the April 17, 2010 episode is #214, or the 14th show of Season 2). While MMAM never actually seems to have taken a break, based on the numbering the "second season" began January 16, 2010.
