What? Where? When?

Throughout the game, a team of six experts attempts to answer questions sent in by viewers. For each question, the time limit is one minute. The questions require a combination of skills such as logical thinking, intuition, insight, etc. to find the correct answer. The person who sent in the question earns a prize if the experts cannot give the correct answer, while the team of experts earns points if they manage to get the correct answer.[2]

The basic rules of the game are:[3]

• The game is played between a "team of TV viewers" and a team of six experts. Viewers ask questions to the experts, and the experts, during a one-minute discussion, try to find the answer to the given question.
• If the experts answer the question correctly, they earn a point. If their answer is wrong, the viewers' team gets a point, and the viewer who sent in this question receives a monetary prize. The experts do not receive monetary prizes.
• The experts sit around the round table divided into 13 sectors, 12 of which contain envelopes with questions mailed in by viewers and pre-checked for validity, while the 13th sector (see below) indicates a question randomly selected from questions submitted by Internet during the show. Questions from the 13th sector are not pre-checked thus their quality and validity are not guaranteed.
• The arrow on the spinning top selects the sector which will be played next. If the arrow points to a sector which has already been played, the next clockwise sector is selected.
• A question may involve material objects or media (video or audio) demonstrated to the players.
• Sometimes the subject of the question is placed inside a "black box" brought into the room and placed on the table but not opened until the correct answer is announced. In this case, the question usually ends with, "What is in the black box?"
• The experts may choose to answer the question immediately, before the minute starts. Then, if their answer is correct, they win an extra minute that can be used to discuss one question later in the game. They may also answer during the minute, but with no chance to win an extra minute.
• Usually, members of other teams of experts attend the game and informally discuss questions among themselves during the show. Once per game, but only if the viewers' team is in the lead, the playing team can ask for help from other experts present in the hall, who have 20 seconds to help. Surprisingly enough, despite the fact that teams actually compete with each other and have no material reasons to assist, the traditions of collaborative work in the club and the spirit of friendship—even between members of different teams—usually urge them to suggest the best answers they have to the playing team.
• The game continues up to 6 points scored by either side.
• When the experts get 5 points, they may declare "the final round" which means that only one expert remains to play the round. This clears the score, and this question "costs" 6 points. The expert must give the exact answer (any variations are not accepted) to win the game with the score 6:0.
• In the 2012 series, the rule of a "minute for loan" was added: if the viewers' team has 5 points, the experts' team may choose to have one extra minute for a particular question (the viewer who sent the question in is awarded their prize even if the experts' answer is correct) and answer one of the later questions without discussing it.

The game was developed between 1975 and 1977 by artist, television host and director Vladimir Voroshilov. The very first version of the game (aired September 4, 1975) emphasized knowledge rather than logic; two families competed from their homes. In the next two years only two games were aired, the second of which, on 24 December 1977, already was close to today's format: a top spinning on the table selected a viewer's question which is discussed for one minute by a team of 6 persons; the host is "invisible" and present only as a voice. (At the time, Voroshilov was banned from appearing on the screen; even his name was not indicated in the show credits.) Since 1978 the game has been aired regularly. The final major change in rules, in 1982, established that the game continues until 6 points are scored by either side. Since 1986, the games have been broadcast live. Since 1990, TV broadcasting of the game takes place in the Okhotnichy domik that is located in the Neskuchny Garden. In 1991, the game became the first TV show in the USSR where TV viewers and experts could receive monetary prizes. Since 2001, only TV viewers can received monetary prizes.[3]

The game quickly became popular, and a dozen or so of the best players from the TV version have become household names of the same magnitude as pop-music stars: Viktor Sidnev, Nurali Latypov, Alexander Drouz, Rovshan Askerov, Fyodor Dvinyatin, Boris Burda, Anatoly Wasserman, Maxim Potashyov, among others.

Licensed versions of the game are currently being aired throughout countries of the former Soviet Union (like Azerbaijan and Georgia). Notably, whilst the original show is aired live, licensed shows are usually recorded.

In December 2009, it was announced that the U.S. production company Merv Griffin Entertainment would produce a pilot for ABC of an American version of the show, tentatively titled The Six. (Its predecessor, Merv Griffin Enterprises, produced Wheel of Fortune, a game show successfully imported into Russia under the title Pole Chudes in 1990). The new show aimed to preserve the essence of the Russian original, although producers had stated that there would be "tweaks" to the format and feature an on-camera host.[2] In April 2010 it was reported that the show would be hosted by Vernon Kay. Production of the show took place in the summer of 2010.[7] The game title was changed first to Six Minds and finally to Million Dollar Mind Game.

The game premiered on Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. ET on ABC.[8] In the U.S. version, a team of six friends competed together to answer a series of questions. Each correct answer increased their cash prize, starting at $6,000 and increasing to $1 million for the tenth answer. However, if the team missed a total of four questions, the game ended and they lost everything. They had 60 seconds to discuss each question, after which the team captain for that question gave a response. Three forms of assistance were available, each of which could be used once after the captain responded: an extra 30 seconds of discussion time, replacing the question with a different one at the same money level, or rejecting the captain's answer and giving a different one. After any correct answer, the team members secretly voted on whether to continue or stop the game; if all six voted to stop, the game ended and they split their winnings equally. Otherwise, the game continued and the captain's position rotated by one seat.

The originally produced episodes were burned off by ABC over a period of six weeks on Sunday afternoons as counterprogramming for NFL games on CBS and Fox (depending on market and television restrictions, the show often went up against meaningless games in some markets where a poorly performing team may be mandated to be covered in that market) after the October 2011 Las Vegas tragedy, and there was no indication that any new episodes would be produced in the future, despite critical acclaim by critics and game show fans alike.

In May 2012, a network spokesperson confirmed that Million Dollar Mind Game was canceled.[9]

Legend:   Currently airing     No longer airing  

Country	Title	Host	Channel	Date premiered	Language
Armenia	Ի՞նչ, որտե՞ղ, ե՞րբ	Karen Kocharyan	Armenia TV	February 2002	Russian, Armenian
Azerbaijan	Nə? Harada? Nə zaman?	Balash Kasumov	Space TV (2006–2010), AzTV (2010-2018), İTV (2018–present)	2006	Russian, Azerbaijani
Belarus	Что? Где? Когда?	Ales' Mukhin	ONT	March 2009	Russian
Bulgaria	Какво? Къде? Кога?	Vladimir Voroshilov	Intervision, Channel One (Central Television of USSR)	November 13–15, 1987	Russian, Bulgarian (simultaneous translation)
Estonia	Mis? Kus? Millal?	TBA	Kanal 2[10]	March 17, 2013	Estonian
Georgia	რა? სად? როდის?	George Mosidze	First Channel	January, 2008	Georgian
Italy	Million Dollar Mind Game	Teo Mammucari	Canale 5	2012	Italian
Kazakhstan	Что? Где? Когда?	Balash Kasumov	Channel 7 (Sed'moy Kanal)	September 30, 2011	Russian
Kyrgyzstan	Билерман ордо	Talantbek Kanatbek uulu (Талантбек Канатбек уулу)	ElTR (ЭлТР)	2007	Russian, Kyrgyz
Lithuania	Kas? Kur? Kada?	Robertas Petrauskas	TV3	April 15, 2012	Lithuanian
Russia	Что? Где? Когда?	Vladimir Voroshilov, Boris Kryuk	Channel One, NTV (1999–2000)	September 4, 1975	Russian
Turkey	Aklın Yolu Bir	Oktay Kaynarca	TNT	April 2011	Turkish
Ukraine	Що? Де? Коли?	Alexander Androsov	Pershyi Natsionalnyi (2008), K1 (2009-????), Inter (2011), 1+1 (now)	February 2008	Russian, Ukrainian
United States	Million Dollar Mind Game	Vernon Kay	ABC	October 23, 2011	English
Uzbekistan	Zakovat	Abdurasul Abdullayev	Oʻzbekiston	2001	Uzbek

What? Where? When? tournament

In addition to the original TV version, which to this date is one of the most popular TV programs in Russia, a competitive variant exists that is played by over 50,000 teams in all countries of the former USSR and in Russian-speaking diasporas around the world, most notably in Israel, Germany, Finland, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.[11] Although Russian is the official language of most national and all international tournaments, there are some countries like Bulgaria, Moldova, Uzbekistan and Georgia where non-Russian-language teams are more numerous.

• Neskuchny Garden, a place of What? Where? When?

• What? Where? When? on Russian TV (in Russian)
• Vladimir Voroshilov. The Phenomenon of the Game (a 1982 book) (in Russian)
• What? Where? When? portal and game archive (in Russian)
• Links to What? Where? When? around the world (in Russian)
• What? Where? When? Question Database" (in Russian)