Kaun Banega Crorepati - Lifelines

Lifelines

A contestant can use a lifeline when he/she is undecided about which answer is correct. A lifeline can only be used once. The current lifelines in KBC5 are the same as KBC4

• Audience Poll: If the contestant uses this lifeline, it will result in the host repeating the question to the audience. The studio audience get 10 seconds to answer the question. Audience members use touch pads to designate what they believe the correct answer to be. After the audience have chosen their choices, the results are displayed to the contestant in percentages in bar-graph format and also shown on the monitors screens of the host and contestant, as well as the TV viewers.

• Phone a Friend: If the contestant uses this lifeline, the contestant is allowed to call one of the three pre-arranged friends, who all have to provide their phone numbers in advance. The host usually starts off by talking to the contestant's friend and introduces him/her to the viewers. After the introduction, the host hands the phone call over to the contestant who then immediately has 30 seconds to ask and hope for a reply from their friend.

• Ask an Expert: This lifeline allows the contestant to ask an expert via live face-to-face audio and video connection. The expert could be anyone from a celebrity to a previous Millionaire contestant. Ask the Expert is available throughout the game. There is no set time limit, and the contestant and expert are allowed to discuss the question.

• Double Dip: This lifeline allows the contestant to make two guesses at a question. In the 4th season this lifeline was made available after the contestant correctly answers the seventh question.In the 5th season,however,all 4 lifelines were made available from the start of the game. A second incorrect answer results in a loss and the contestant's winnings dropping back down to the last milestone achieved. This lifeline differs from others in that once the player has chosen to use this lifeline, he/she must answer the question, and cannot walk away or use any further lifelines on that question.

Former lifelines

• Fifty-Fifty (50/50): If the contestant uses this lifeline, the host will ask the computer to randomly remove and eliminate two of the "wrong" answers. This will leave one right answer and one wrong answer, resulting in a situation of eliminating 50% of the choices as well as having a 50% chance of getting the answer right if the contestant is in a situation of making a guess. In 2010, 50/50 was replaced by Double Dip.

• Flip the Question: The contestant earned this lifeline upon answering the fifth question. The computer replaced, at the contestant's request, one question with another of the same monetary value. Any lifelines used on the original question prior to the switching were not reinstated.