For the first time since its inception 13 years ago, organizers of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire have announced the TV show will be going off air indefinitely from 25th June.
The suspension is coming after telecoms giant MTN Nigeria put paid to sponsorship of the show.
The announcement was first made public on the Facebook page of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and was later confirmed by show host, Frank Edoho on Twitter.
Sadly, we are going on a break cos our sponsor pulled out. But we thank @MTNNG for being with us all these years. Please thank them for us.❤ https://t.co/MC9EAgHwQp
— Frank Edoho (@frankedoho) June 25, 2017
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When in disbelief a fan said it was the end of season 13, the show organizers quickly corrected the impression.
https://twitter.com/WWTBAM/status/879323572354920449
When contacted why MTN pulled out of the show, Edoho simply said “they don’t have to” give any reason for pulling out.
The organizers, however, expressed gratitude to the telecoms firm for sponsoring the show so far.
“We thank you for being with us through the 13-year-journey of enriching and impacting the lives of Nigerians. We wouldn’t have been able to enrich so many Nigerians without the help of our sponsor @MTNNG So we say THANK YOU!” the organizers tweeted.
https://twitter.com/WWTBAM/status/879065409328226304
https://twitter.com/WWTBAM/status/879065661762408448
However, the notice announcing the suspension of the show states that the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire app will continue to reward players.
“The WWTBAM App will continue to reward players, and winners will still get weekly prizes of N5,000 x 5 players and monthly cash prize of N20,000 for the top player each month.
“While the show is on break, top players will only win cash and will not be invited to play in the hot seat until the TV show resumes,” the notice stated.