| Genre: | Game show |
| Creator: | Vladimir Voroshilov Natalia Stetsenko |
| Director: | Vladimir Voroshilov (1975–2000) Boris Kryuk (2001–present) |
| Presenter: | Alexander Maslyakov (1975–1976) Vladimir Voroshilov (1977–2000) Boris Kryuk (2001–present) |
| Opentheme: | Owl with Crown |
| Country: | Soviet Union (1975–1991) Russia (1992–present) |
| Language: | Russian |
| Num Seasons: | 43 |
| Num Episodes: | 493 |
| Executive Producer: | Alyona Loban |
| Producer: | Boris Kryuk Andrey Kozlov (1991–present) Yegor Yuzbashev (1999–2000) |
| Runtime: | up to 90 min. (live) |
| Channel: | Soviet Central Television (1975–1991) Ostankino Television 1 (1992–1994) Channel One (1995–1998, 2000–present) NTV (1999–2000) |
| Last Aired: | present |
What? Where? When? (Russian: Что? Где? Когда?, translit. Chto? Gde? Kogda?; ChGK) is an intellectual game show well known in Russian-language media and other CIS states since the mid-1970s. Today it is produced for television by TV Igra on the Russian Channel One and also exists as a competitive game played in clubs organized by the World Association of Intellectual Games. Over 50,000 teams worldwide play the sport version of the game, based on the TV show.[1]
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.
The basic rules of the game are:[2]
Music pauses are used as timeouts. Music plays in a cabaret style.
Question: What, according to Christopher Morley, was invented by a woman who had been kissed on the forehead?
Answer: High heels.
Question: Continue the sequence: love, breath, Rome, estate, column, sense, heaven...
Answer: Wonder. (The question is based upon popular set expressions: the first love, the second breath, the third Rome, the fourth estate, the fifth column, the sixth sense, the seventh heaven, and the eighth wonder.)
Question: The ancient Scandinavians used so called kennings, a kind of literary trope. For example, “the land of the spirit” meant the human chest ("around the heart" area) and “the land of the whale” meant the sea. What did “the land of the falcon” mean?
Answer: The hand.
Any question ending in "What is in the black box"? In some questions, it was another black box, or even a flight data recorder (in Russian, the words are the same). There are three black boxes, but the large black box is usually the one used. The smaller and smallest boxes are used only if there are two or three boxes in the question, in blitz rounds, or if the item must be smaller in size.
Question: No modern book has aroused so much talk as the one in the black box. What book is it?
Answer: A telephone book.
Other contents of the big black box have included the following:
Question: (Two different pieces of music from J. S. Bach's exercises are played to the experts.) The black box contains a thing which can be placed between these two pieces. What is it?
Answer: A mirror. (Either piece is the reverse version of the other.)
Question: (Three video clips are demonstrated to the experts: a tractor in a field, a flying aircraft and a submarine in the sea.) A Chinese proverb says he can do('work with, or fix') everything but the three things shown. What is his profession?
Answer: A chef. (The proverb says he can cook with anything walking on earth except for a tractor, everything flying in the sky except for an aircraft and everything swimming in the sea except for a submarine.[3])
Question: (An old map of England is given to the experts.) Using a map like this, Edmond Halley became the first to measure the area of each county in England. What simple method did he use to do so if he only knew the area of the county of Kent?
Answer: He cut out and weighed separately each of the counties. Then he could easily evaluate the area of each county based on the area/weight relationship calculated from the weight and area of Kent known to him.
The experts are presented an item and usually asked how it is used.
Question: (The experts are given a party balloon inflated with air at normal pressure.) Explain how this item could be used at a space station.
Answer: Letting the balloon float could help in detecting the hidden drift/air flows, and thus aid in searching for lost items that could have possibly drifted away.
Question: Seneca once said to Nero, "Anyway, you can never kill…" whom?
Answer: The one who will replace you.
Question: What is the word for "lightning" in German?
Answer: Blitz.
Question: What place, according to Mark Twain, has the highest rate of mortality?
Answer: A bed.
Question: What do you get twice for free and have to pay for if you want more?
Answer: Teeth. (Baby teeth, permanent teeth, and false teeth.)
Question: The uniform enrolled in 1925, before that it did not have any standard
Answer: Artek uniform
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 receive monetary prizes.[2]
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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]
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[8] | 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 | |
| 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 |
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.[9] 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.
Face-to-face World Championships have been held every year since 2002 with corporate sponsorship and under the aegis of TV Igra and the governments and National Olympic committees of Russia and Azerbaijan. The 2010 championship took place in Israel with sponsorship of Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. The 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 edition was cancelled due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
To qualify, 4 methods exist:
These competitions rely on logic rather than knowledge too, but usually require more erudition than the TV versions due to high educational level of the players.[10]