Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was an immediate cultural phenomenon when it premiered in 1999. On paper, however, the Regis Philbin-hosted quiz show was a turkey. It lost millions a year, according to accounting statements produced by Walt Disney & Co. subsidiaries American Broadcasting Companies Inc., which aired the show, and Buena Vista Television, which produced it.
It fell to Roman Silberfeld and his team from Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi to prove to a federal jury in Riverside, Calif., that the Millionaire-as-financial drain story didn’t jibe. Silberfeld, managing partner of Robins Kaplan’s Los Angeles office, made the case that Disney and its subsidiaries hid the Millionaire profits to avoid paying his client, U.K. production company Celador International Ltd., which created the show.
