In August 1999, ABC premiered a special series event, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, a game show based on the British program of the same title. Hosted throughout its ABC tenure by Regis Philbin, the program became a major ratings success throughout its initial summer run, which led ABC to renew Millionaire as a regular series, returning on January 18, 2000. At its peak, the program aired as much as six nights a week. Buoyed by Millionaire, during the 1999–2000 season, ABC became the first network to move from third to first place in the ratings during a single television season. Millionaire ended its run on the network's primetime lineup after three years in 2002, with Buena Vista Television relaunching the show as a syndicated program (under that incarnation's original host Meredith Vieira) in September of that year.