Noam Osband Wins $250,000 in an Intense “Millionaire”
It only took two weeks, but we have our second giant winner this season on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Congratulations to Noam Osband, a PhD candidate in Anthropology from Philadelphia, PA, who won $250,000 in one of the most intense Millionaire moments in years. Noam ended round one with $40,600 and successfully answered his $100,000 question. His $250,000 asked him what the American Dialect Society’s word of the 20th century was. He successfully answered “jazz” for $250,000. His $500,000 moment, though, is what turned heads.
Photos and videos courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.
This was his $500,000 question.
When the “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, which of these artists was questioned as a possible suspect?
A: Claude Monet
B: Henri Matisse
C: Edgar Degas
D: Pablo Picasso
The long five (aired) minute segment saw him trying to reason out an answer not by knowledge of the answer but logic behind the answers and writers. He said he was going to go for it repeatedly and came literally within a breath of saying, “Final Answer,” often. Meredith looked like he wanted to scream, “Walk Away!” repeatedly. She looked visibly terrified. However, he decided he could not pull the trigger on his guess, B. Good thing, since it was D. Noam is the second $250,000 winner of the season, the first civilian quarter millionaire of the season, and the sixth person to win $250,000 since the adoption of the “Super Mix” format last season. Congratulations to Noam. He was a great, entertaining, and smart contestant. Glad to see him win huge.
First of all, before I go into a rant about why removing the clock was a good move because of stuff like this, did anyone notice a giant blooper for $100,000? I’m wondering if anyone in the studio who is reading this can confirm. Noam was reading through the answers and when he mentioned C, the answer accidentally locked in. He looked very confused, then there seemed to be an edit, and then he answered. Did someone get trigger happy and give him an accidental clue?
Moments like this are precisely why removing the clock was a good move and I like the Super Mix format. Sorry, but we would have never had a moment like this with the 45 second time limit. In the two years of the clock we only had one exciting moment like this. Again, Meredith Vieira looked downright terrified during the $500,000 question. When’s the last time you saw her like this? Last time I can think is pre-clock. There has been numerous with Super Mix, and that’s what Millionaire is based around; giant money, hugely intense moments.
People who have “it in” for the Super Mix format really need to get over it and realize that while the ratings haven’t gone through the roof since the new format, you cannot conceivably tell me that the constant stream of $10,000 or $15,000 winners was more exciting than moments like this, or Anthony Anderson’s $250,000 win; or any of the numerous giant moment they’ve had. Congratulations to Noam, enjoy the $250,000.
If nothing else, this gives me a slight amount of hope that maybe we’ll finally see a million dollar question this season? October just started and we’ve already had two $250,000 winners. It’s been four years since we’ve had a $1,000,000 question in daytime. Would be nice to see one.
Photos and videos courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.
SOOOO true Alex! One of THE most intense moments I’ve seen in a LONG, long time!
I was in the studio that day and I didn’t even catch the gaffe until the second time I had watched it on TV (a friend pointed it out to me). Its so intense in there, everyone was paying attention to just Noam and Meredith.
Noam thought about the $500K question for alot longer than 5 minutes (Thank you, editing crew!), and myself and those around me reasoned out the correct answer also based on the choices given.
Personally, I am a fan of the Super Mix and hate the idea of the clock because some answers you will not know off-hand, but if you have time to reason it out you may just stumble on the correct answer.
I was in the hotseat on 1/13/00 with Regis (won $32K) and I can attest that its so much pressure you may not remember your own name and you end up blurting out an answer like the poor woman that went directly after Noam. You need that time to think about your smart response.
DJ
MV still can’t do fake-outs as good as Tarrant, though. This one didn’t even make sense! “Oh no… you’ve won $250k!” Wha?
If it means anything, I thought she said, “Oh, Noam” (pronounced No-om according to the press release). Not denying your point though. CT is awesome at the fake outs.
Meredith has only a few seconds to do a fakeout, Chris has a lot longer. It shows, it really really shows.
Ogi Ogas was the last really good Meredith fakeout. “Oh, Ogi… you could have had $250,000, instead you have $500,000.”
Alex, I did not see an obvious “edit” in the replay. But I had never seen a lock-in done prematurely like that before. It’s not as if they showed the correct answer as-such, though.
Removing the clock may have helped this game. Yes, it’s a pain for the audience there and for the host, but can you really tell me that having the clock was ever good for the contestant? Because of the pressures of the clock, you may easily get too anxious and lock-in a wrong answer without thinking about it first, or make a decision to walk away where if you had the extra time, you may end up knowing the answers.
I wouldn’t mind the Super Mix so much if it didn’t come with the whole package of the set/music redesign. Bring back the hot seat, the old music, and keep this mix, and maybe I’d remember the charm that Millionaire is all about.
Removing the clock sure helps, but it all comes down to the writing on a contestants ability to go this far. The $100K question Noam also figured out logically the same way I figured it out–only one English explorer up there. In previous years, the writers would’ve had all English explorers.
As for the $500K, I knew that one before the multiple choice. This also comes down to writing–this isn’t the most obscure of events, it’s a very famous theft. I’ve read about it a few times, so I was able to recall the information. Very unlike the recent seasons with the hot seat (clock or no clock) that had the absolute most obscure of questions with semi-ambiguous writing.
Adding the clock to Who Wants to be a Millionaire was the worst addition the producers ever came up with. Dare I say it was even worse than removing the 50/50, Phone A Friend and Double Dip lifelines. So when they removed it as of last season, you can only imagine how happy I was.
Some of the funniest moments of this game show occurred from dialogue between the contestant and the host — dialogue which was not possible with a stupid clock on the screen forcing the contestant to rush through their answer.
Even when Regis came back for those 11 episodes in 2009, he wasn’t adjusted to the clock, and neither were the contestants who appeared alongside him. Everyone was having such a fun time that we often forgot there was a time limit, and that was clearly evident on more than one of the questions, when Regis kept talking and interacting with the contestant throughout the entire question, not bothering to pay attention to the time limit.
I’m glad to see the clock was removed and they had better not reinstate it, or there will be anger amongst a lot of us game show fans.
I just remember being incredibly annoyed by this guy. I was hoping he would pull the trigger for a half-million and blow it.
He was on J! a couple years ago, and I don’t remember particularly liking him then either.
From what I’ve read, those that have a problem with the new format believe that the value of the question should be tied to the difficulty of it. There have been instances of clueless contestants using the audience for a relatively easy question that ended up being worth $25,000, then jumping the next two questions, and then walking when they don’t know the next one. So they’ve won $12,500, and they never actually answer a question under their own power. Some people have referred to the show as having more of a Deal or No Deal vibe.
Let’s be clear: this moment would not have happened with the clock. There is nothing that the shuffle format adds to this moment, as all the drama is up in classic Millionaire tier.
The shuffle has still added nothing to the format, except randomizing the win amount in the 1-9 correct answer territory. The most exciting thing to happen in the shuffle stage of the game has been the $25K doubles in the double money gimmick.
That may be true, but it also means that the main problem people have with the Shuffle format—the delinking of difficult in value—can be easily rectified without changing the game play as it exists now.
However, the issue is that the producers wouldn’t have simply abandoned the clock. Shifting to the Shuffle format gave them a better justification.