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It’s always exciting to see someone come within the $250 range in the showcases on The Price is Right, winning them both.  It hasn’t happened yet, and frankly despite the complaints it should be really hard to win.  They’re giving away a ton of cash and prizes with that.  You don’t want to see it go away too often.  You want to build anticipation.  The months of anticipation and several extremely close overbids (one yesterday) finally came to a close.  Contestant Kendra Cross, a Marine from Dallas, was the first person this season to win the lot.  She won cash, a Mini Cooper Convertible, a few trips including one to Ireland for the St. Patrick’s Day special, and more.  It’s great to see these rare giant wins on the show.  Enjoy below.

We’ll be covering the Tournament of Ten on Millionaire each day far after it’s finished airing and when ABC gives us the clear.  Just be warned that further down we will reveal spoilers about if a contestant gets a right answer.  We will not reveal who wins the million because, frankly, I don’t even know.

The first edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s Tournament of Ten has completed.  Contestant Alex Ortiz from Stamford Connecticut faced this question to be in the running for $1,000,000:

“Which First Lady was a ninth-generation descendant of Pocahontas?
A: Helen Taft, B: Edith Wilson, C: Bess Truman, D: Mamie Eisenhower.”

Alex did not want to risk her previous show’s winnings of $50,000 and potentially drop to $25,000 with a wrong answer.  She decided to walk, and next up to bat for the top prize is the number nine seed.  The correct answer was B, Edith Wilson.

As we said before, number nine seed Tony Westmoreland is up today.  Tony is a mailman from Cambry, IN, and previously won $50,000 in his first appearance.  We’ll see if he’ll be the frontrunner for the million dollars today.  Here’s a short video with Tony, courtesy of the show.

We’ll have daily coverage of the Tournament of Ten, so stay tuned to Millionaire and here for coverage.  Feel free to comment all you want about the show and the player.  Go crazy with spoilers in comments.  Be sure to check the comments each day for a little bonus for you all, actually.  By the way, what did we think of the first celebrity question?  I thought they did a really nice job incorporating it.  It didn’t add a lot to the show but it didn’t eat up any extra time or distract.  It worked just as well as it should have.

I don’t think it’s a big surprise to anyone (nor is it bad to admit it) that the daytime Who Wants to be a Millionaire hasn’t had a lot of really exciting moments in the past two or three years.  We had a few big thrills in primetime but nothing has really created an incredibly tense exciting atmosphere in a very long time, which is a huge reason why the show is a success.  Thankfully today’s carryover contestant, Jehan Shamsid-Deen, changed that.  Jehan started the show with $250,000 and no lifelines going for $500,000.  Her question was:

The only woman ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor received it for her service in what war?
A: Iraq War B: Vietnam War
C: World War I D: U.S. Civil War

I won’t put the video on here just to be fair and legal and all but I’m sure there’s an easy way to find it because videos like this only create exposure for the show.

She rattled off every fact possible about the lady but had trouble matching the facts to the exact war.  It was an exciting 45 second race against the clock to get the answer.  Sadly she did not get it in time, but had she just guessed with her gut instinct, C, she would have lost anyway.  The correct answer was D.  It was a thrilling moment that’s right up there with contestants like Ogi Ogas and Lyn Payne.

Jehan is currently number one in the Tournament of Ten bracket and barring some freak accident where everyone wins $250,000 or $500,000 in an unbelievably short amount of time, we’ll be seeing her with one of the best shots of anyone to win the million dollars.  It’s a large risk for her.  In the tournament she will see a million dollar question and has to decide to risk her $250,000 to answer or not.  If she misses she drops to $25,000.  However, she blew me away with what she knew and how she played and she’s definitely my favorite to take home the million bucks.

On Friday’s series finale of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, George Smoot became the second person to win the million dollar top prize, and the first man to do so.  So congratulations for knowing more than a ten year old.  Of course all of this is taken down so many notches after you remember he’s a Nobel Prize winner.  He helped with the big bang theory.  Not the show, the actual thing.  And people are amazed and want me to throw tons of praise his way?  Give me a break?

I mean be honest: was anyone stunned he won?  If he didn’t get to the 10th question and $500,000 it would have been an embarrassment.  If he didn’t answer the million dollar question correctly it would have sucked a bit.  The only tough decision he had was if he was going to risk $475,000.  You can ask someone to raise their right hand and they’ll get nervous for a $500,000 gamble.  But he wisely did it and won the money for himself, not charity.  Again, should we have been shocked?  It’s the entire issue I have with this show (well, at least the primetime version).  I see no sense of accomplishment for winning the million dollars.  On Millionaire, if you win the million dollars you sure as hell earned it.  Same with just about any other million dollar game show.  But he answered questions that, legitimately, a 10 year old shouldn’t have much trouble with.  I don’t think it was anything to go crazy about.

I’m not trying to take anything away from him.  Well, yes I am.  But he still won a million dollars and that can’t be taken away so way to go.  It basically proves if you shove a million dollar top prize in something and someone wins, people will think it’s the greatest thing ever.

The daytime version of Fifth Grader, which just started, is so much better.  I mean the same idea is there, but it’s not a Millionaire clone anymore.  You have to bank money, questions are actually a bit harder somehow (go figure), that final question which can multiply your money by ten is a tempting gamble, it’s quicker, and the top prize is an appropriate level.  It’s amazing how a vast majority of the shows go from popular trash to popular treasure as soon as they go daytime.  The same thing happened with Deal or No Deal.  However, the premiere of daytime Fifth Grader only scored a 0.9 and if Merv Griffin’s Crosswords can’t survive with that rating I really doubt Fifth Grader with its higher budget can.

So what do you think of this all?  Like the daytime version better than the primetime?

We’ve seen just about everything on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  Lots of winners, people going all the way with no lifelines to use, lots of $0 winners, and people even walking away with $300.  I really never thought I’d see someone go for the $1,000,000 question on Millionaire and lose.  ABC lucked out and had easily the most exciting Millionaire moment in a long time.  Ken Basin lucked out and got a stack that he could breeze through (apparently so could most other people, including myself), and made it to the $1,000,000 question with Ask the Audience left.  The now-infamous question:

For ordering his favorite beverages on demand, LBJ had four buttons installed in the Oval Office labeled “coffee,” “tea,” “Coke,” and what?
• A: Fresca                    • B: V8
• C: Yoo-hoo                • D: A&W

I know I’ve said it over and over, and sorry to anyone in the audience, but I’d rather walk away without using it than being tempted since odds are they know no more than I do.  He went with them and a 40% went with C, Yoo-hoo.  Next highest was A&W.  I don’t exactly know what went through his head but he believed in Yoo-hoo enough to lock it in as his final answer.  Sadly instead of confetti Regis Philbin uttered what has to be the 2nd most memorable line (beyond the whole, “You’re going to Paris,” thing from the John Carpenter run) in the show’s history:

“No, it’s not the final answer, and you just lost a lot of money.”

So there we have it. I never thought it would happen but we had the first million dollar question loss in America ever, and an astounding $475,000 tumble.  It was just chilling and unbelievably depressing to watch.  It’s right up there with Raul’s $263,000 loss on 1 VS 100.  I feel especially bad for him because you can’t be a Deal or No Deal grade moron and win on this show.  I feel nothing for people that throw away $400,000 on Deal.  He was clearly smart and played the game beautifully.  He just messed up on that last moment.  It’s truly an amazing game show moment, a flat-out amazing television moment, and something no Millionaire fan will forget.  I’m just stunned (and truly happy) that I wasn’t spoiled about this and I had absolutely no clue this was going to happen.  I usually hear about all these huge moments beforehand so being like everyone else in this instance was great, so thank you to all those who kept me in the dark.  Never do it again or else I’ll have Michael Davies come and hunt you down.

I’ve never been happier for the celebrity segment, though.  If the series ended like that it would just be heartbreaking, but Meredith Vieira and Regis really lightened the mood.  First off, daytime Millionaire host Meredith Vieira invited the nine Ring of Fire contestants left to have the first guaranteed spots on the syndicated edition, so you can see each of them in September.  Also she turned the tables on Regis and asked him a question for $50,000.  Fantastic way to end a show.

Well it was without a doubt one of the most memorable Millionaire moments ever and one of the most memorable game show episodes in an unbelievably long time.  What did you all think?

ABC really (accidentally) saved the best for last in this season finale of the primetime revival of Who Wants to be a Millionaire hosted by Regis Philbin.  Most people seem to agree that the first two or three episodes of the series were really rough, but by Monday last week the show was at the basic comfort level that we know and like.  I’ve been really digging the show the past week, so I’m crossing my fingers.  The ratings have been relatively stable around the seven million viewer mark which for summer isn’t bad.  Hell, it’s not that bad looking at the ratings for a lot of Fall shows.  As many have said before, if Big Brother can survive at this ratings level each summer I don’t see a reason why Who Wants to be a Millionaire can’t return next summer for some new shows.

Tonight includes a lot of special and surprising moments.  First off, Meredith Vieira, host of the daytime version of Millionaire, will be the special celebrity guest at the end of the show.  She’s got a big surprise for Regis, too.  She’ll be asking Regis a question for his favorite charity.  She previously appeared on the show and won $250,000 a while ago.  She’s got a big surprise for players in the studio.  It’s great and you’ll have to watch tonight to find out what it is.

The most exciting is that it’s confirmed that tonight will feature the first $1,000,000 question since Lyn Payne in November 2007.  ABC has said this million dollar moment is, “like we’ve NEVER seen before,” which has me really wondering.  We’ve seen someone go all the way with all lifelines left and basically burning all lifelines really early.  Could we have the first person to miss the $1,000,000 question?  But maybe we have the first million dollar winner in seven years and the first under the new format.  It’s the most anticipated Millionaire episode of the year and it’s definitely something not to miss.  The season finale of Millionaire is tonight at 8:00PM ET on ABC.

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.

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If you’re a Drew Carey Show fan like I am, you may be excited to hear one of the gags The Price is Right has in store for April Fool’s Day.  The character Drew Carey’s arch nemesis, Mimi Bobeck, will be appearing on the show as a guest model on Wednesday, April 1st.  Here are some pictures to show you what to expect.  I’m definitely checking out this episode; it looks extremely funny.  Also below are a few pictures from the country music special.

Sorry for the delay in this.  We’ve had a hell of a time converting the video.  But here’s the second part of the last Thursday’s Deal or No Deal from England that we wanted to share with you. By the way, we now have iPhone versions of videos coming out regularly soon, hopefully!  This is the first one done for the iPhone/iPod/Moble Phone.  Click the Phone button to get that version of it.  However, above is the video.  Below is some commentary, so watch the video first.

First off, I want to still specify that UK Deal blows the NBC primetime version out of the water and will for all times.  There’s no debate there.  I’m glad Alice won, I am.  But did it seem a bit cheap and needless to anyone else?  I want to specify that no, I don’t think it was rigged.  No one should.  It’s not rigged.  It’s horrifically illegal for them to rig it.  That being said, I do think Endemol manufactured this win to a small degree.  I think Endemol saw they had someone who chickened out and really regretted it.  Alice came to the perfect scenario Endemol wanted, the 1p and £250,000.  Endemol used their tactic which they’ve used recently which I really enjoy: the Banker’s Gamble.

It feels like Endemol specifically used the Banker’s Gamble there for the water cooler talk the next morning of a big depressing loss or the huge win.  Alice deserves a lot of credit for screwing Endemol in their own game.  I don’t think a lot of people are feeling this because Channel 4 in England, their Deal staff, and everything in general up there isn’t as gimmick dependent as NBC’s Deal was so if they pull a stunt like this to gather ratings no one really cares.  They deserve tons of credit for that, because it’s the exact reason their product excels.  But if they tried this suddenly in America I guarantee there would be an outcry.  I have no problem with the Banker’s Gamble for anything but the top prize.  But doing it for the big one seems like forcing something to happen to gain a few more viewers.  This win didn’t carry the same impact as the last one because it wasn’t the first obviously.  But it left an, “Eh,” feeling with me because of how she chickened out and took a Banker’s Gamble that all but one person that I talked to said they’d take in a heart beat.

However, the main goal of all TV is to entertain.  They succeeded in that.  It was an entertaining, exciting, suspenseful episode of Deal or No Deal.  That’s more than what can be said of 90% of NBC’s Deal.  It just seems like a bit much for all of what happened.  Nonetheless, hopeful the Banker’s Gamble is a twist that our Daytime Deal or No Deal, which is more in-line with UK Deal, will take in next year.  It’s a great device to keep viewers interested even with an early deal.

I don’t know if you watched Who Wants to be a Millionaire? at all this week, but it’s been a very interesting, big money week which is raising some questions about the use of the clock.  First off, if you’ve followed this site at all, you’ve heard about Carlos Giron.  He walked out earlier this week with $250,000.  He walked away after three lifelines for the half million dollar question; all but Double Dip.  Both Ask the Expert and Ask the Audience pointed to one certain answer (though neither was a certainty).  Phone A Friend didn’t yield any help.

Some commenters did post about a new Millionaire spoiler video on the site which we’ve become used to with contestant Jim Batts.  He also walked away with $250,000 with no lifelines available for both the $100,000 and $250,000.  So now we know, readers.  If ABC posts a video on their site that shows someone winning $100,000; odds are they are going to win $250,000.  They may want to mix it up next time.  We’ve had an ungodly amount of quarter millionaires this season.  It’s leading to an interesting observation about the new game clock.

I often get emails about the extreme difficulty of the show.  I get them more this season than ever.  I usually shrug them off, since the daily version of Millionaire can’t be giving away huge money regularly.  What the emails usually boils down to is after six or so years without a millionaire, it seems next to impossible to win.  I have to tell you, I let you a huge sigh and thought, “It’s never going to happen again, is it?” when Carlos Giron couldn’t pull the trigger with all signs pointing to the right answer.  I think it can be done but it’s going to be difficult directly because the clock.

Why will it be more difficult?  I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the clock has barely affected the game at all from the $100 to the $250,000 questions, and most likely going for $1,000,000 (though we haven’t seen it yet).  It doesn’t do much of anything there.  I actually think it helps give away more money than usual.  It starts to become a giant problem going for $500,000 and that’s the only question I ever see it affecting.  Again, why?  Because no one can make a calculated gamble for $500,000 in 45 seconds unless you’re 100% certain, which is a lucky fluke, or you’re a crazy gambler who deserves to be on Deal or No Deal.

I know that the show’s job isn’t to give away money.  That would be dumb if it was.  We all know that.  But how are you supposed to make a calculated decision on a question you aren’t sure of, with $225,000 on the line, with 45 seconds on the clock?  At least you have the time bank going for $1,000,000.  You’re shit out of luck going for $500,000 unless you’re a psycho.  You wouldn’t have had two of the most memorable moments in the show’s history, Jeff Gross’s and Ogi Ogas’s $500,000 wins, with the clocks.

What to do about it?  I doubt they’ll do anything about it.  I suggest bringing the million dollar time bank through the entire game.  Any unused time from the previous question goes on to the next question.  But will it happen?  I highly doubt it.  But hey, wishful thinking.

Photo courtesy of Valleycrest Productions Ltd.

Find where you can watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire? today if you get a chance.  It’s a very exciting episode.  Returning contestant, Carlos Giron, is going for big bucks during Netflix Million Dollar Movie Week.  We’ve got spoilers after the break.  Here’s a clip of a small spoiler.  The most exciting spoiler is, again, after the break.

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Roger Storm’s episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was amazing.  I think a bit of a strategy flaw of using Phone a Friend way too early, instead of Ask the Audience, may have won him $500,000.  But $250,000 is still a ton and it’s very exciting.  You think that’s as good as it gets?

Somehow the crew at ABC have topped themselves again.  They outdid Roger Storm’s teaser.  I alert you.  Do not miss March 11th’s episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.  It’s a staggering spoiler.  I haven’t dropped my jaw at Millionaire in a long time.

It’s a very exciting episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? tomorrow.  If you watched today (Monday, February 23rd) you met Roger Storm, a 59-year-old Digital Learning Network Coordinator at the NASA Glenn Research Center and a father of eight.  The former Jeopardy! champion worked his way up to $250,000 and he will be going for $500,000 at the start of tomorrow’s show (Tuesday, February 24th).

Roger used his final three lifelines to get to the $250,000.  The question was “Al Gore’s famous and oft-ridiculed quote “I took the initiative in creating the Internet” was made in 1999 to what journalist? A: Barbara Walters, B: Larry King, C: Wolf Blitzer, D: Matt Lauer.”  Not knowing, he first used Ask the Expert, with Ashleigh Banfield of TruTV.  She believed it was C but wasn’t too confident.  Next he used Ask the Audience; they believed the answer was B.  He finally used his Double Dip lifeline to select both answers.  Roger first chose B, which was incorrect; afterwhich he chose C which won him $250,000.  Will he be the first $1,000,000 winner in nearly seven years and a thousand episodes?  Watch tomorrow to find out.

Want to know the $500,000 question?  Check under the break for the question and see if you can work it out.  WARNING: READ THE COMMENTS AND BREAK AT YOUR OWN RISK.  THEY WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM OTHERS WHO HAVE SEEN THE SHOW.

Photo courtesy of Valleycrest Productions Ltd.
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We were supplied with a small preview of next Tuesday’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire? which is up on YouTube now.  Definitely take a look.  Could he be The One?  The clip does have a pretty decent spoiler about next week, but it’s exciting and doesn’t ruin the episode.

I just got back from Los Angeles last night.  I read about what happened on Tuesday’s episode of The Price is Right first, since my inbox was flooded with it.  After that I watched the clip of the perfect bid in the Showcase.  Honestly, this post isn’t about that moment, as Cory nailed that perfectly.  All I will say is I can totally see where Drew’s reaction was coming from.  I had the same reaction when I heard about it before I saw it.  I think Drew could have faked it a bit more, but he’s not like that and CBS knew what they were getting into when they hired him.  He’s a real person and acts like how most do.  And I think that’s why The Price is Right is screwed and I could have told you this two years ago.   Because we are finding out a few things about the format.

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