Dan Patrick Gets “Millionaire” Snub Explanation From NBC Soccer Comedy Duo

Published by Interrobang Staff at January 17, 2015

NBC’s soccer comedy duo Men In Blazers stopped by Dan Patrick’s radio show on Friday. While Michael Davies and Roger Bennett were there to talk Premier League and soccer in America, Patrick wanted to find out why TV producer Davies reneged on his offer to host “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

In 1998, London-born Michael Davies was head of ABC’s nascent reality programming division, and having helped create Win Ben Stein’s Money, he was looking to develop a game show for the network. When he heard about the original Millionaire premiering in the UK, he had relatives tape the show and send it stateside so that he could present it to executives. Even after ABC initially declined, he continued to develop the show. It was at this point, according to Dan Patrick, he was flown out to L.A. at Davies’ invitation. “He says ‘I want you to do Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, but Regis calls me all the time. I gotta get him something so he will go away.’ So, I have this job, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I fly home, I say to my wife, ‘hun, I think I am doing a show called Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ Fast-forward to a promo, with Regis Philbin telling you about Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I never- I called back to talk to Michael- I didn’t hear back from one of the Men In Blazers here until today.”

Davies said he could remember very little about that time, and had even gone through his files to figure out what happened. What he could remember was that he probably shouldn’t have guaranteed the position as Davies hadn’t sold the show yet, basically offering Dan a job that didn’t exist. In fact, Millionaire wasn’t picked up until weeks before its first broadcast. But another probable reason Dan got snubbed was his old employer. ” Every time we had something, we wanted somebody from ESPN. I wanted somebody from ESPN to go and host it. What I do remember is every time we wanted one of you guys from ESPN, and that was really you and Kenny [Mayne] and Stuart [Scott] a little bit, it was a huge, major problem and a political issue to go and do it.”

Patrick wound up thanking Davies for not giving him the job, especially since the show became a hit with Regis. But Davo admitted it probably wouldn’t have mattered, as the show’s success in ninety other countries proved how effective the original concept was. Now, Dan Patrick is a major anchor at NBC and hosts Sports Jeopardy. Michael Davies started his own successful production company, Embassy Row, and co-hosts the comedy soccer podcast Men In Blazers with journalist Roger Bennett. Their suboptimal TV show airs Monday nights on NBCSN.

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