Australian “Millionaire: Hot Seat” $250,000 Attempt

While we here are celebrating Who Wants to be a Millionaire‘s 10th anniversary on ABC and getting frustrated by Regis nearly costing people $100 questions night after night, Australia’s Millionaire: Hot Seat is amazing me and doing well.  If you don’t know about the show, six people play the game.  One person sits in the seat at a time.  If a question is answered right they move up the chain but if they get a wrong answer he or she is out of the game and the highest value on the chain is eliminated.  Each player has a Pass they can use just once.  Whoever answers the 15th question correct gets whatever value he or she is on.  I’m not a fan because they really took a different game and shoved the Millionaire branding on it.  I figured it would fail because of it, but I was really wrong as it’s catching up to Deal or No Deal in Australia.  Here’s a recent moment from the show that shows everything I don’t like about the format.  The contestant has not been in the seat the entire show and by the grace of others missing all he has to do is answer one question during the entire half hour for $250,000.  Can he do it?