NBC's "The Million Second Quiz" would be debuting on Monday and would run for 12 straight days online. The contest by Comcast Corp's television network would also appear as a primetime show on TV for an hour hosted by Ryan Seacrest. The contest's mechanics would have two players compete in a 10-question trivia duel. Each player would get to answer each question in under five seconds. Players with the highest score after the duel would be flown to New York to compete on its primetime show.

Advertising partners Subway, Eveready Battery Co. and Orville Redenbacher had placed big bets on the NBC contest and the primetime show version. Energizer Holdings Inc. unit Eveready would be sponsoring a countdown clock and a recap segment called "Charged Moments". ConAgra Foods Inc.-owned Redenbacher's would be sponsoring the competition clock in the primetime show and would run the "Get Your Orville Ready" campaign.

Tony Pace, Subway's chief marketing officer, said in an interview, "The digital piece combined with a prime-time piece, you don't find that all too often. People who get engaged with this will stay engaged, and that frequency of engagement is very valuable." Mobile apps of the show has been downloaded over 300,000 times, and 11 million had been playing the game before the show even started.

According to data by American global information and measurement firm Nielsen, NBC had averaged 6.95 million viewers per night during primetime TV season that ended in May. This was 5.3% lower than its average the same period last year. Although NBC nor its advertisers would not disclosed sponsorship revenues, a source told Bloomberg Businessweek in July that NBC scored USD2.1 billion in advertising pladges for the new season.