An interactive component was introduced in which home viewers could SMS the answer to an interactive question, and if they were selected and phoned, they would receive $5,000 cash, and would be asked a second question over the phone. If they answered the second question correctly, they would increase their winnings to $10,000.
This episode introduced several rule changes:
- Contestants were only introduced before taking the hot seat.
- The Fastest Finger First question was scrapped.
- A sixteenth question worth $5 million was added.
- Eddie had the option of imposing a time limit if he felt a contestant was taking too long to answer a question.
- Contestants received a fourth lifeline, known as the Switch, once they reached the second safe level ($32,000), which allowed them to give one question the flick and receive a second question for the same amount.
- The contestant's three nominated Phone-A-Friends were seated in a different studio room in the Nine studio closest to their own town or city. This ensured that they could not see or hear any questions or answers, and couldn't gain an unfair advantage by asking people around them or finding the answer with a computer search engine.
About four months after Eddie McGuire returned to working in front of the camera as the host of the Australian version of 1 vs 100 (2007), he announced on 18 May 2007 that he would resign as the Chief Executive Officer of the Nine Network effective 30 Jun that year and would take up a new position in programming services in addition to more on-screen roles. Three months later, Fiona Connolly reported in The Daily Telegraph that Nine's nightly quiz series Temptation (2005) would be rested for the rest of the year and be replaced by the return of Millionaire with five half-hour episodes each week. When McGuire's predecessor as CEO, David Gyngell, returned to the role in September, he announced immediately that 90-minute editions of Millionaire would be broadcast live to air from 7:00pm Monday nights and Temptation would continue to air at 7:00pm Tuesdays to Fridays. The following year, both shows would be replaced by the US sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003).
The first Australian appearance of the Switch lifeline, which was first seen in celebrity editions of the UK series and most recently appeared there in 2002 during the 300th episode, and was also used on the US series between 2004 and 2008. The idea of the Switch was taken from the Flip used in another Celador Productions game show, The People Versus (2000).