Big “Millionaire Spoiler + Patricia Heaton’s Worst Nightmare
So Michael Davies, you apparently don’t have to hunt down and kill anyone from inside information. The spoiler information comes after the break. It’s not an earth shattering spoiler and I think you are all safe to read it. If anything, it makes the remaining shows more exciting.
If you watched Who Wants to be a Millionaire last night then you saw Patricia Heaton’s moment on the show which can only be described best as embarrassing. For her $50,000 charity question, she was asked a math question. I’m sure we’ll be asked to take the video down but for now, you just have to see this thing. The question was:
If a euro is worth $1.50, five euros is worth what?
A: 30 quarters B: 50 dimes
C: 70 nickels D: 90 pennies
It’s not the easiest thing on earth but unlike the poor contestants who we actually care to see play, she had no 45 second time limit to answer so she should have been able to get this. Even if she couldn’t have done 30 x .25 mentally, she could have counted each quarter out and would have gotten it. Or she could have realized that 90 pennies isn’t even close, nor is 50 dimes. But instead we got a lot of moaning about the question, complaining about how her charity won’t get money anymore, and basically constant blather which probably would have been a good time to count some money. Trust me, this was severely edited from what you saw on TV.
So as if not knowing how to count was bad enough then she didn’t know the rules to the show. She thought that the Phone A Friend time limit was thinking time and you could answer after. She was stunned at the taping when her husband was gone after 30 seconds and complained quite a bit. Then she thought she couldn’t answer the question and she lost once Phone A Friend was gone. It finally took Regis Philbin to do everything but shove her Hot Seat over and scream, “DO THE DAMN MATH!” before she finally got it with massive assistance from Regis and the audience who were sit of the 15-20 minutes it took to answer. It was a staggering display I’ll never forget. It’s her big nightmare right now because her clip is hitting some big websites and she’s looking incredibly dumb right now. It’s awesome for Millionaire because they are getting a lot of extra press they wouldn’t have gotten.
Regis Philbin was on Larry King Live last night.. He said that one of the remaining shows will have million dollar moment. Regis clarified this by saying there will be a million dollar question but we don’t know who, when, or what happens. I’d just watch every night. We went a whole season without a $500,000 win and it’s been seven long years since the last millionaire, so I’m really pulling for it to happen. Although I’d love to hear daytime host Meredith Vieira say, “I’ve had to go seven damn years without a millionaire and Regis gets one in two friggin weeks?” It’s staggering the show kept this a secret, so good for them.
I have to say, I've never been so embarrassed at a celebrity's lack of intelligence, or at least their lack of confidence (she DID get it right, after all). She practically gave up the minute she knew it was a math question, like she wasn't even going to TRY! And then she went with her husband simply because he was British (so it seemed to me) despite the fact that being British (or even European) had NOTHING whatsoever to do with how to solve the question. It was awful to watch.
Even so, I'm glad the charity got the money.
I have to say, I've never been so embarrassed at a celebrity's lack of intelligence, or at least their lack of confidence (she DID get it right, after all). She practically gave up the minute she knew it was a math question, like she wasn't even going to TRY! And then she went with her husband simply because he was European (so it seemed to me) despite the fact that being European had NOTHING whatsoever to do with how to solve the question. It was awful to watch.
I have to say, I've never been so embarrassed at a celebrity's lack of intelligence, or at least their lack of confidence (she DID get it right, after all). She practically gave up the minute she knew it was a math question, like she wasn't even going to TRY! And then she went with her husband simply because he was European (so it seemed to me) despite the fact that being European had NOTHING whatsoever to do with how to solve the question. It was awful to watch.
Even so, I'm glad the charity got the money.
epic fail!
Oh my good lord. What IQ do you need for that? 80 points? I do hate it when Regis helps out – isn't this meant to be a quiz? Isn't this the reason the show was cancelled first time around?
I will say this: while the Millionaire questions are cute, they are getting *too* cute – so much so that (a) they are very tough to answer with the time limits imposed, and (b) they are near impossible for phone-a-friends to follow first time around.
For example, that "white jacket, black shirt, black pants" stuff on the Michael Jackson album cover question. Why not just do "black/white suit, black/white shirt" x 4? Or just ask the colour of his jacket and give four colours?
Just give charity the money and stop inflicting us like this. That was painful on so many levels.
She said the midwesterners we smarter
well, she didn't support it
They're not going to have a $1,000,000 contestant
that's just so we watch even though Ms. Heaton pretty much ruined the show
The celebs have ruined the show.
Well not all the celebs have ruined the show, but Patricia brought the show to a halt last night with her whining and stupidity. It wasn't Algebra or Geometry, it was SIMPLE FRIGGIN' MATH, which she didn't do until Regis forced her to, and even then!! I was bothered by what seemed to be not her inability to do the math, but like she didn't to be bothered!!
She made Katy Perry look like a genius – and that's saying something.
Thank God I missed this segment when I saw the show in person. I would've yelled out "Do the math already, you stupid b____!!"
I may be the only person in the world who says this, but I sympathize with Patricia here. It has been said on here before, I'm sure: the American people as a whole don't like math. To say she makes a "colossal ass" out of herself when it's obvious she got nervous and had a mental block is ignorant. She calmed down and figured out the multiplication that was necessary with Regis's help. That's fine.
I've never seen a celebrity seem so disinterested in playing the game. Just because you have a new show on the network means you should be invited to play. It got to the point where Patricia finally offered to donate the additional $25K, which tells me that she was more ready to get out of the studio than anything.
If they bring Millionaire back next year, please no celebrities. They just eat the final ten minutes of the show when we could use that time for the contestants. Especially if we are going to have stupid celebrities like Mrs. Heaton. Regis practically gave her the answer on a silver platter. I'd love to see a million dollar winner though. We're long overdue for one.
Well, it could have been worse. Richard Hatch (Survivor series one) was a guest contestant on a charity episode of Australian Millionaire, and flunked out during the first round on a relatively simple math question similar to Heaton's (probably slightly easier). I'm guessing his charity still got the default amount, though. You can probably still find that clip on YouTube somewhere.
Getting back to the spoiler of a million-dollar moment, didn't Regis promise on the first episode that there'd be a special something-or-other for the final episode of the series? I can't imagine what else he meant by it.
Give her a break..she cracked under pressure…big woo!! besides wynonna di the same thing tonight…..
Ok, I thought it was a Saturday Night Live sketch when I saw it, but forgotten it was on ABC. Wow, are celebrities getting dumber and dumber? Well, not really, but Millionaire could’ve gotten smarter celebrities.
They have a special celebrity
and I can't imagine anyone but Norm McDonald
but at least she tried to figure it out
I'd love to see how the $1,000,000 question works with the clock
She didn't get nervous, she didn't WANT TO BE BOTHERED with the question. Even before the choices came up, she said the equivalent of "Oh no, a math question!!" She didn't start to figure it out until Regis went through the choices with her, and even then. She said "I'll give the charity $25,000 before Regis told her she hadn't answered officially. She couldn't wait to get out of Dodge City, so to speak. Regis deserves combat pay for sitting throught that whole mess.
I can imagine Meredith Vieira.
It's 45 seconds plus any time banked. Banked time means any time left on the clock from previous questions. It would be interesting to see, and I hope it happens.
I seriously doubt she was insulted that they'd give her a math question. I think what happened proves Heaton's so freaked out by the idea of math that she wanted to get out of there. She was constantly convincing herself that she didn't know the question. It seemed like a defensive mechanism
Right, but at least then it didn't look like he was making as much of an ass of himself as Heaton was…
I can imagine Meredith Vieira…putting Regis in the Hot Seat.