For all the criticism ABC took for running "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" into the ground in the 2001-02 season, little of it was directed at the game itself.

"I think it's taken an undue amount of flak," executive producer Michael Davies says. "[Host Regis Philbin] and I have both had to hear for years that it's the show that killed ABC ... but the one thing that no one's ever really leveled at the show is that it's a bad show."

ABC still believes that as well and is launching a higher-stakes version of the game called "Super Millionaire" on Sunday (Feb. 22). It will air five times over the course of the week -- 9 p.m. ET Sunday and 10 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday -- and then be done, at least until the next sweeps period in May.

"Millionaire" came to the United States as a series of short-term events in 1999, and its phenomenal success led ABC to turn it into a weekly series. The show eventually aired as many as four times a week, propelling ABC to the top of the ratings for a while but leaving a deep hole when viewers started turning away.

The network now must try not to repeat its mistakes of the past (which came under a different executive team, Davies notes) by resisting the temptation to make "Super Millionaire" a regular series. Davies and Philbin would both prefer to do the occasional short-run event.

"Regis and I have both felt passionately for a long time that if the show came back, we were only really interested if it came back ... as a consecutive-night event that we could do two or three times a year," Davies says.

Philbin believes the appeal of game shows like "Millionaire" lies in the escalating tension as contestants reach higher prize levels, and some of that tension is lost in a weekly series.

"[A consecutive-night run] builds momentum that's really something to watch grow as the week progresses," Philbin says. "Each night brings another contestant that people are talking about, and sometimes that contestant is held over till the next night. We're not going to wait a week for you to see him again -- he's there the next night."

On "Super Millionaire," contestants start with a $1,000 question -- up from $100 in the earlier ABC version and the syndicated version of the game -- and are shooting for a grand prize of $10 million. When players reach $100,000 after answering 10 questions correctly, they get two new lifelines, called Three Wise Men and Double Dip, in addition to the traditional 50/50, Ask the Audience and Phone a Friend.

Three Wise Men lets players consult with a three-person panel of experts on an answer, while Double Dip lets them have two shots at answering a question, in exchange for giving up the right to walk away with the money they've already won. Davies notes that the addition of the Double Dip lifeline may influence how players use the 50/50 option, which eliminates two of the four possible answers to a question.

"It completely changes, if you think about it, the tactical use of the 50/50 lifeline," Davies says. "Because if you have the 50/50 and the Double Dip at $100,000, you're guaranteed to get a question right if you use them both on the same question."

The questions on "Super Millionaire," particularly the first few, will most likely be a little more difficult than in other versions of the game. Davies thinks, however, that the elevated dollar amounts later in the game will be what really sets players on edge.

"When there's more risk on a question and the money is higher, the question becomes more difficult just because there's more pressure on it," he says. "You sometimes don't need to make the question more difficult to make the situation for the contestant more difficult."