Sam Murray Wins $1,000,000 on “Millionaire” Tournament of Ten

We have a champion of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire Tournament of Ten, and his name is Sam Murray.  Sam, a bartender from Philadelphia, was seeded eight of ten and was the only person in the entire series to risk the money previously earned and claim the $1,000,000 check.  The only thing standing in his way today was the amazing Jehan Shamsid-Deen.  Her question was the following:

A rare example of a word that rhymes with “orange,” the Blorenge is a what?
A: River in Ireland, B: Forest in Scotland, C: Mountain in Wales, D: Desert in Australia

Jehan’s previous winnings totaled $250,000, and a guess at the question risked a $225,000 loss if wrong.  She wasn’t positive and walked away.  Unfortunately she would have guessed C, which is correct, but $225,000 is a massive risk for not being absolutely positive so who can really blame Jehan for walking?  Some sites I’ve been pointed to are calling Jehan a “coward” for walking away, but they really didn’t have nearly a quarter million dollars to risk on what wasn’t a sure guess.  Frankly the right thing to do, if you aren’t sure, is to walk at that level and no one winning $250,000 with how hard that show is today is remotely a coward.  I know I’ve said it before but Jehan has easily been the most impressive contestant the show has had since Lyn Payne, the last $500,000 winner on the show, and the material has frankly become a bit harder even since then without the use of Switch the Question, so massive congratulations to her.

But the man of the hour is Sam Murray.  Sam walked in with $50,000 and walked out with the first million dollar check from Millionaire since 2004.   Sam did deserve it, though.  A vast majority of the ten had their million dollar question figured out, but just couldn’t get sure enough to risk it.  Sam was the only one who had the guts to go for it and did fantastic.  I think it was a given by the end of last week that he would win but today was sure exciting.  What will Sam do with the money?  Sam said, “You don’t know what it means to me. I’ve done a million things in my life. I’ve been all over and I’ve just wanted to be able to go back to school. I really like helping sick people and I really want to go back and get my nursing degree. I feel like it’s my calling.”

So there we go.  Finally a millionaire, just not the way I would have liked to have seen it.  I would still adore to see just one person answer all 15 questions, but who knows.  I really think we’ll see another massive winner in the next few weeks.  Millionaire didn’t remove Phone A Friend to save the integrity of the game, which is what’s being claimed.  They’re getting rid of it because someone won huge with it and they went into budget crisis mode, so they got rid of easily the most helpful thing on the show.  But I may be way off and that group may be the most honest and ethical group of producers I’ve ever seen in my life.

Congratulations to Sam Murray, though, for actually having the guts to go with his instinct and being the only person to answer the $1,000,000 question and claiming the top prize.

Photo and video courtesy of Valleycrest Productions Ltd.