Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - General Discussion

[saber5055]

14 hours ago, Swenson said:

When Cedric the Entertainer hosted the daytime version,

I didn't know he hosted this show either, but that makes him an even bigger dumbass last night on the Kimmel version. But I guess he was so sure the German Shepherd had never won Best at Westminster. It's also not the most popular breed, "everyone" has a Lab. The funny part is, even though I easily knew the answer, I had just finished watching the AKC National Championship dog show, which ended a bit before Millionaire came on. I was in the middle of emailing friends who were traveling home from that show when the $32,000 question was asked of Cedric.

Interesting coincidence, Best In Show at the Championship was judged by Jimmy Moses, a former professional show dog handler who handled the top winning show dog of all times, a German Shepherd named Mystic that won 275 Best In Shows. He also handled the GSD Manhattan, the top winning male show dog of all times and winner of Best In Show at Westminster in 1987. I know this show is taped much earlier, but it would have been cool if Cedric had been watching AKC.tv and saw Mr. Moses judging Best, and so learned his back story about GSDs and Best In Shows. And freaking answered correctly.

I also never saw Toy Story 4 but it was pretty much a no brainer that Woody left with his girlfriend Bo Peep. The world isn't ready yet for Disney to hook Woody up with Forky.

Edited December 14, 2020 by saber5055

[saber5055]

43 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

I vaguely remember hearing that answer but I was distracted and missed the question. Something about the dog show best in show maybe?

Paraphrasing: "According to AKC, this dog is the most popular breed in the United States yet it has never won a Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club." Answers: Bulldog, Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd, Siberian Husky.

Edited December 14, 2020 by saber5055

[ams1001]

6 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

Paraphrasing: "According to AKC, this dog is the most popular breed in the United States yet it has never won a Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club." Answers: Bulldog, Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd, Siberian Husky.

I would have guessed right just based on most popular breed.

[Bliss]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

I would have guessed right just based on most popular breed.

Ditto!

It's such an easy game when I'm on my couch. LOL.

[853fisher]

As mentioned above, Jimmy did not know about the language question last week.  There may have been one or two others over the runs so far.  But I think I remember that he was clear about how uncertain he was.  I don't think he has ever given an answer which the contestant locked in and lost on.  Now, I thought ABC / Disney should've split the difference between $32K and $125K and let the civilian go home with $64K for the free Disney+ commercial.

I did know the "Toy Story 4" questions.  The first two were very special to me as a child and I eagerly anticipated a new installment.  I saw it at a gorgeous theatre near me with all the trappings of luxury c. 1926: stunning neon, towering mural, bejeweled curtain, organ prelude, the works!  And it was wonderful to share it with an audience.  Not all of "my" theatres are as tricked out, but I'm afraid watching Disney+ on my couch will never be an experience about which I'd get even half as excited as going out.

I thought it was strange that Cedric and Sharita seemed largely to be trying to remember bits and pieces of the contest results.  I focused on "who do I know who has dogs and what breed are they"?  I vividly remember from my suburban childhood that everyone and their brother-in-law had a lab, so that's what I went with.  I wasn't sure, because that was 10 or 15 years ago and of course those experiences are not universal, but none of the others made sense to me.  Now as an adult, I have many friends with pedigreed dogs and others with mutts, but still plenty of labs.

Speaking of those contestants, if I were Cedric, I would've played down all the trivia I claimed to have absorbed from hosting.  I'm sure he was doing his best and he seemed like a nice enough guy, but my goodness, he and "Sister" should've just switched seats.  I didn't mind seeing their journey end, and at least the charity got the minimum.

It'll be interesting to see how Rebel does.  I thought her story about how she met the friend was kind of obnoxious but I like her generally.  The friend is a big cheese in tech, as I assumed from the tale and his look.  It sounded like Rebel was describing Fastest Finger, which I bet the Australian WWTBAM? used when she was still there, but the Hot Seat format they use there now has even more twists.

[saber5055]

On 12/15/2020 at 2:50 AM, 853fisher said:

It'll be interesting to see how Rebel does.

She couldn't get off my teevee quickly enough. The whole time she was on, all I could think was this dumbass has more money than I'll make in a trillion lifetimes and she's dumb as a rock. I had to turn away and do something else while she was on. As Bug Bunny would say, "What a maroon." Man, what a tedious episode.

[Phishbulb]

A lot of her questions were very US-centric, and she is from Australia. I don't know that I would've gotten that one about Martha Washington's dentures or whatever that was, so that was maybe just a lucky guess on her part. I didn't even know the one about the hot-dog eating contest winner, and I live in the US. (I would have answered "Kobiyashi", since that's the Japanese guy who won the contest for many years in a row, but he wasn't one of the choices).

For what it's worth, I believe Rebel has a law degree and was planning to be a lawyer before making the switch to acting as a career, 

[deemac]

I was amazed in the little bit last week that Rebel didn't know.  I was totally blown away this week.  I mean not knowing Saturn has rings?  And then saying Mars is hot?  No if any thing it's cold but that may be the SF fan in me.  But when she said she'd make up the $93,000 if she missed a question?  That was pure arrogance and ended my DVR watching

[saber5055]

2 hours ago, Phishbulb said:

A lot of her questions were very US-centric, and she is from Australia.

Well, she was on an AMERICAN game show, not an Australian one. What did she expect?

Joey Chestnut is all over the news before, during and after Nathan's contest. And I hate football but I can recognize the Steeler's logo. I also know not to blather on incessantly when there is a time limit on what I can say.

Edited January 4, 2021 by saber5055

[UsernameFatigue]

I only know Rebel Wilson by her name, so did not know what to expect. What an annoying person! And even without the U.S. centric questions, she came across as an idiot. The final straw was when she took 26 seconds to ask the phone a friend question. Sheesh. It is really too bad that her friend was able to say part of the answer, as she totally deserved to lose for that stupidity alone. I am glad that Jimmy pointed out to her how long she took to ask the question. 

[JeezumCrow]

19 hours ago, deemac said:

But when she said she'd make up the $93,000 if she missed a question?  That was pure arrogance and ended my DVR watching

I liked that she was willing to make up the difference if she’d guessed incorrectly. She knew she was rolling the dice and didn’t want the charity to lose because of her gamble - I enjoy when the celebrity gets to enjoy playing the game *and* keeps their charity as a priority. 

[853fisher]

Count me under not too impressed with Rebel, or her tech bro +1.  Did he contribute anything other than identifying which planet has a ring? I don't doubt her heart was in the right place but "I'll just make up the $93K if I have to" just rubbed me wrong.  I also thought it was gauche to quantify how much she had donated to the school previously.  Everyone else just says "this is an organization very dear to my heart, I've volunteered with them for years, they do amazing work."  Rebel says "oh yeah, I gave them $50K recently."  Maybe they just caught me on a bad night.  Either way, $300K more has been donated in her name than in mine to this very worthy-sounding charity, so that's a good thing.

Not a great night for me on a few of the questions.  I was sure that the "tallest buildings" answer was the UAE.  I follow politics regularly, and had even been on 538's website the morning before I watched the episode, but still tripped myself up and might well have said there are 538 congressional districts.  Of course I knew the answer, but in the moment I forgot that the number of electors is derived from the 2 senators and X House districts per state plus, crucially, the three DC is entitled to under the 23rd Amendment.  I was trying to talk myself into imagining that maybe each senator constituted a Congressional district in some way.  Oy!  That's what I get for being a smartass.

On the other hand, I think I would likely have gotten the Best Directors question anyway, but I certainly knew it after this cool NewsHour piece about the impact of contemporary Mexican filmmakers.  My father also watches the NewsHour most days, but tunes out about halfway because he finds the cultural / human interest stuff they tend to run in the second half hit-or-miss.  I often tease him, telling him that one day he'll be sorry about something he might've learned if he'd stayed tuned in.  How many thousands was that question worth.  I just can't stand "Game of Thrones," but I really liked the contestant, so I won't hold her husband or her +1 against her.  I can't say I've ever heard her name at all, actually, but I"m wishing her luck for next week.

[SoMuchTV]

15 hours ago, UsernameFatigue said:

I only know Rebel Wilson by her name, so did not know what to expect. What an annoying person! And even without the U.S. centric questions, she came across as an idiot. The final straw was when she took 26 seconds to ask the phone a friend question. Sheesh. It is really too bad that her friend was able to say part of the answer, as she totally deserved to lose for that stupidity alone. I am glad that Jimmy pointed out to her how long she took to ask the question. 

I don't have strong feelings about her one way or the other, and in general I'm willing to cut a lot of slack to anyone, celebrity or not, who has to perform under pressure on a game show, but Oh My Goodness!  Could she have taken any longer to ask that question?  Did she think she had 30 seconds?

[ams1001]

On 1/4/2021 at 12:10 PM, saber5055 said:

She couldn't get off my teevee quickly enough. The whole time she was on, all I could think was this dumbass has more money than I'll make in a trillion lifetimes and she's dumb as a rock. I had to turn away and do something else while she was on. As Bug Bunny would say, "What a maroon." Man, what a tedious episode.

lol...I'm watching on demand right now and just before I read your comment, she was dithering over the Oscars question and said something like "why can't I think of this" or whatever and I said "because you're a moron!" (I guessed Mexico and even said "it's probably Guillermo del Toro or someone.")

On 1/4/2021 at 2:55 PM, deemac said:

I was amazed in the little bit last week that Rebel didn't know.  I was totally blown away this week.  I mean not knowing Saturn has rings?  And then saying Mars is hot?  No if any thing it's cold but that may be the SF fan in me.  But when she said she'd make up the $93,000 if she missed a question?  That was pure arrogance and ended my DVR watching

The average temperature on Mars is -81F, so yeah, I'd say it's cold. (Mercury is 354F, which is pretty balmy compared to Mars, to and Venus's 847.

On 1/5/2021 at 5:58 PM, SoMuchTV said:

I don't have strong feelings about her one way or the other, and in general I'm willing to cut a lot of slack to anyone, celebrity or not, who has to perform under pressure on a game show, but Oh My Goodness!  Could she have taken any longer to ask that question?  Did she think she had 30 seconds?

Oh my god I'm glad I read these comments before she got to the phone a friend so I was prepared. All you have to do is read the question as it's written! "You took a long time to read that question"...she didn't actually read the question! "I need to know...I need the man's name...he won the past five years...oh, maybe I'll tell you the options now." Jeez!

[ams1001]

Who else was screaming "ITS SIX-TOED CATS!" at Zachary Quinto?

 

[SoMuchTV]

18 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Who else was screaming "ITS SIX-TOED CATS!" at Zachary Quinto?

 

I really thought Hemingway/ Key West / six toed cats was common knowledge, but apparently not. 

[ams1001]

32 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

I really thought Hemingway/ Key West / six toed cats was common knowledge, but apparently not. 

I didn't actually go to the house but we took the trolley tour of Key West and heard all about the cats.

[Taeolas]

9 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I really thought Hemingway/ Key West / six toed cats was common knowledge, but apparently not. 

I know next to nothing about Hemingway. Never read him, or sought out any info about him. But through osmosis I did get that factoid somehow. (I think it may have been through Amazing Race possibly or more likely just a random trivia question in Trivial Pursuit or something). Still it was just a random factoid I barely remembered; if you weren't familiar at all with Hemingway I could see missing it. 

[saber5055]

When Kimmel announced Mr. Spock from Star Trek was next, I thought, "Wow, Leonard Nimoy is coming back to play Millionaire?" But I was not disappointed to see Zachary Quinto. I could sit and just look at him for the hour. And the hour after that. And the hour after ... Dude is outrageously good looking.

For some reason I knew it was six-toed cats, and I have no idea how I knew that. It's one of those things I just did know. Actually, I didn't even know Hemingway had a house/museum in Key West. But I knew it had six-toed cats!

Too funny that question about what Letterman left Kimmel. It would have been a great question if that contestant had already used Jimmy or elected to take a different life line besides him. Nice it worked out since I totally would not have guessed neckties.

I've never seen a Leggos movie, but I would have guessed Rexcelsior as the ship's name, thinking it a tribute to Stan Lee. Yeay me!

Edited January 11, 2021 by saber5055

[opus]

28 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

 or elected to take a different life line besides him.

Which is what happened right before when Amanda Peet swapped Jimmy out for her smartest person

[saber5055]

@opus, One Day At A Time is now rerunning here from S1 E1. Valerie is 15 years old, looks 12.

[Maverick]

 I would have loved to have seen Leonard Nimoy but it wasn't going to happen unless they used a Ouija Board or found a way to tap into a real life Fringe alternate universe.  Or did one of those creepy holograms templated on a body actor.  In which case, no.  Just no. 

[opus]

1 hour ago, saber5055 said:

@opus, One Day At A Time is now rerunning here from S1 E1. Valerie is 15 years old, looks 12.

You must have Antenna TV.

And to stay on topic, Valerie got to do the Celebrity Millionaire thing with Regis

 

 

[853fisher]

My little Judy, who had been lying in my lap for the better part of an hour, took all her extra toes and ran away the moment Zachary missed that question.  I can't say whether she was disgusted that he didn't know about Hemingway's cats or whether it had more to do with her non-polydactyl sister Gale making a loud noise across the room.  I leave it to you, dear reader, to decide which is more plausible.

9 hours ago, saber5055 said:

I've never seen a Leggos movie, but I would have guessed Rexcelsior as the ship's name, thinking it a tribute to Stan Lee. Yeay me!

That's the one I would've guessed, for not much reason other than that I liked the way it sounded, but the reference went over my head.  I'm just not much of a comics guy but now I've looked it up and know that "excelsior" was his motto or catchphrase.  Huzzah for picking up more trivia bits!  Thank you for that.

[ams1001]

I liked Shadi. She was fun. Until she called her phone a friend. Just read the question! I don't understand people who do that. The person is going to be expecting the question and answers in a certain format. Asking them something that sounds random like that is just going to cause confusion.

lol...when they were putting up the baby's first word question, I said "antidisestablishmentarianism" before they put up the answers. 😄 

 

More Watergate hotel fun: "Room keycards read “no need to break in,” pencils in the rooms read, “I stole this from the Watergate Hotel” and instead of hold music, guests will listen to excerpts from Nixon’s speeches. Robes are monogrammed with a cheeky message: “Cover up.”" (from Travel+Leisure) Also their phone number is 617-1972 (the break-in was June 17, 1972).

[SoMuchTV]

18 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I liked Shadi. She was fun. Until she called her phone a friend. Just read the question! I don't understand people who do that. The person is going to be expecting the question and answers in a certain format. Asking them something that sounds random like that is just going to cause confusion.

I was actually thinking the opposite (about the phone-a-friend) - she was smart to strip away all the extra stuff and just ask for the piece of information she needed to answer the question. China had nothing to do with the answer, and reading the whole question and the four choices, plus time for the friend to process everything, would have used up all her time. “How many billion people in the world?” is concise and quickly google-able. (Side question - are phone-a-friends allowed to do that? And if not, how would they enforce it?)

But that question seemed to have a higher degree of difficulty than usual. You had to both know a fact, and be able to do the math in your head (possibly for all four choices to help you rule out the wrong ones).  Off the top of my head, I can’t remember any similar “double questions”.  

I do think she shouldn’t have told the friend what she thought it was, right off the bat, though. 
 

Also - LOL about the Watergate trivia.  Also LOL that I had to manually capitalize Watergate, because apparently it was before autocorrect’s time. 

Edited January 25, 2021 by SoMuchTV

[Spunkygal]

I think Shadi did the absolute right thing in asking her BF for just the world population and not reading the whole thing. It is difficult enough to read the question and all 4 answers in such a short time. Then hoping the PAF would immediately know the world population and have time to do percentage calculations would have totally bogged down the process. Also, if I were to go on the show, I’d let my PAF know in advance that I might ask just key words or phrases and not to expect a fully worded question. I think the show gives such a short time for the PAF lifeline because they expect the PAF to goggle. Too many people waste time reading the whole thing.

I really haven’t been digging the celebrities. I just want real people. As with the original WWTBAM, I watch for trivia, not for any of the celebrities. I don’t have any favorite actors, singers, entertainers, so having them on irritates me. 

Having said all that, I do like that having the celebrities give props to charities that perhaps the rest of the country may not be aware of.  And the charities are benefiting by the prize money. So I guess I shouldn’t gripe about having them.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Spunkygal

[saber5055]

I got a laugh from Ray Romano asking Jimmy if the show wanted players to answer quickly or were they okay with players "Dr. Phil-ing" the answers.

[ams1001]

OMG the extended "pull out all the stops" discussion almost made me turn off the TV.

How did Ray Romano do? I missed the first 20 minutes...

 

[saber5055]

16 hours ago, ams1001 said:

OMG the extended "pull out all the stops" discussion almost made me turn off the TV.

That was a real Dr. Phil moment for sure.

[PBnJay]

17 hours ago, ams1001 said:

How did Ray Romano do? I missed the first 20 minutes...

He got the $125,000 answer about what team Michael Jordan still hates (I saw The Last Dance so I knew that answer too), then guessed on the $250,000 question about the Italian New Years tradition and was wrong. I knew the right answer, but I wasn't Ray. Anyhow, he dropped to $32,000 but said he would make up what he lost out of his own pocket for his charity. 

No spoiler answers in case you catch the rerun.

[ams1001]

9 minutes ago, PBnJay said:

He got the $125,000 answer about what team Michael Jordan still hates (I saw The Last Dance so I knew that answer too), then guessed on the $250,000 question about the Italian New Years tradition and was wrong. I knew the right answer, but I wasn't Ray. Anyhow, he dropped to $32,000 but said he would make up what he lost out of his own pocket for his charity. 

No spoiler answers in case you catch the rerun.

Thanks! I might watch just the beginning on demand later.

[Mittengirl]

The firefighter last night should give at least half her winnings to her friend & PAF because she did not answer one question on her own.  

[853fisher]

I found the firefighter very personally likable and thought she had a good approach at first, not too fast or slow, checking with her +1 quickly on everything.  "Pulling out all the stops" is where I lost patience too.  I am a big fan of theatre organs, so the question was very easy for me, but I don't hold that against her, we all have different interests.  It was just the agonizing, paralyzed deliberation!  When she burned the second lifeline, I groaned, because she really had the answer before she asked for the first one.  From then on, I was just kind of ready for a quick conclusion and silly things annoyed me.  No idea where Botswana is?  "The Gambler" reduced to wherever that was?  But hey, she won tens of thousands more on a game show than I ever have, and seemed genuinely charming.  And she gets cats out of trees!  I'll drink to that.

[anniebird]

Did anyone but me think that Zachary Quinto and his co-worker/assistant really didn't like each other? 

[853fisher]

21 hours ago, anniebird said:

Did anyone but me think that Zachary Quinto and his co-worker/assistant really didn't like each other? 

They definitely seemed like "frenemies" at best.  I thought Zachary's affect was a little cold throughout, actually, but I tend to connect best with effusive personalities, so I may not be the best judge.  I think perhaps they were hamming it up for the cameras a little.

[Swenson]

Needed to post this question seen on the Chris Harrison version.....it was for $20,000....the contestant used a lifeline.

If you were to "earn" an "urn" for an "erne".....you will have acquired a vase for a what?

A: A lizard......B: A Bird......C: A Rodent.....D: A Fish

 

[saber5055]

Too bad I wasn't a lifeline for that movie question. I knew the fiction Leo character was from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Love that movie.

The nurse who came on next ... man, that was SO PAINFUL. It's like the dumbest person in the room was chosen to fill the remaining time.

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by saber5055
There is a dif between non and just plain fiction.

[Phishbulb]

Yeah, I'm a little surprised Thomas Middleditch couldn't suss out that the movie where a guy and his friend save Sharon Tate from being killed wasn't based on a true person 😀  It's funny that he was actually IN one of the 4 listed movies though.

[SHD]

On 3/3/2021 at 5:44 PM, Swenson said:

Needed to post this question seen on the Chris Harrison version.....it was for $20,000....the contestant used a lifeline.

If you were to "earn" an "urn" for an "erne".....you will have acquired a vase for a what?

A: A lizard......B: A Bird......C: A Rodent.....D: A Fish

 

Honestly, if I didn't do crossword puzzles, I'm not sure I would know what an "erne" is!

11 hours ago, saber5055 said:

The nurse who came on next ... man, that was SO PAINFUL. It's like the dumbest person in the room was chosen to fill the remaining time.

I'm glad I did a lot of fast forwarding! I pretty much just zipped through to the questions and saw that she got them right, so I thought she was doing well. And I also didn't know the one she missed.

15 minutes ago, Phishbulb said:

Yeah, I'm a little surprised Thomas Middleditch couldn't suss out that the movie where a guy and his friend save Sharon Tate from being killed wasn't based on a true person 😀  It's funny that he was actually IN one of the 4 listed movies though.

That was tough though, because everyone obviously knows that the story was fictional, but almost everyone else portrayed in that movie WAS a real person, so I can see how someone might think that Leo's character was actually based on someone around at that time.

[saber5055]

11 minutes ago, SHD said:

That was tough though, because everyone obviously knows that the story was fictional, but almost everyone else portrayed in that movie WAS a real person, so I can see how someone might think that Leo's character was actually based on someone around at that time.

That was my thought too, so I can see him being confused. But lots of press came out about The Revenant being based on a true story. Even though the movie was five years ago, I saw another story about it recently. It was a tough one for an actor to go out on.

[Swenson]

It's time for the final answer:  If you guessed "B"......A Bird......you were correct.

[Spunkygal]

Really? Crick and Watson discovering DNA was a stumper? I weep for our country. 

[ams1001]

15 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Really? Crick and Watson discovering DNA was a stumper? I weep for our country. 

Glad I'm not alone there.

The gym owner's person made me laugh with her "I fear for him if I'm the smartest person he knows" comment...glad he didn't trade a lifeline for her since he hardly used her, anyway.

[chitowngirl]

These seem to be edited so there are no continuing players.

[jabRI]

On 3/15/2021 at 2:18 PM, ams1001 said:

Really? Crick and Watson discovering DNA was a stumper? I weep for our country. 

And wasn't that from a nurse that missed it? Or am I mixing up the players?  Binge watched a  few episodes while cooking

[ams1001]

27 minutes ago, jabRI said:

And wasn't that from a nurse that missed it? Or am I mixing up the players?  Binge watched a  few episodes while cooking

Yes, it was the nurse.

[saber5055]

Wow, that first lady contestant. I wish it were me playing instead of her, I would have pocketed a cool $125,000 and not used any lifelines. Of course, the fact that a derecho went through here this summer and basically destroyed everything was a help to me winning that $125,000.

I'm liking Ryan Fox with the red Sally Jessie glasses. Cool they are back in style. Well, if they are. I was rooting for him to go with 12 Monkeys, but cashing out with $125,000 was pretty respectable. He was a good player, fun and smart, a nice end to the season.

[PBnJay]

I enjoyed the last player too. It's nice to see a smart contestant who also has a good personality and is entertaining. He was a good one to end the show's run. Agree that the first contestant was not so good.

[UsernameFatigue]

6 hours ago, PBnJay said:

I enjoyed the last player too. It's nice to see a smart contestant who also has a good personality and is entertaining. He was a good one to end the show's run. Agree that the first contestant was not so good.

I usually find that the first several questions are ones that pretty much anyone would likely know, but I did not know the chess answer (though would have guessed queen)and did not know the Seinfeld answer as I have never been a fan of the show. I thought the first contestant was smart when she read the clue to her phone-a-friend, as she left off the unimportant parts of the question to save time. But then she kept talking and didn't give the friend long to answer. I was surprised that she didn't go with her friends answer because the friend never indicated that she was not sure of her answer. She also cut the friend off with 3 seconds still remaining so could have asked the friend how certain she was. 

The second guy drove me nuts during his final question. He rambled on and on, before he finally asked his girlfriend her thoughts. All she said was that she hadn't seen 12 Monkeys, and then he jumped back in and continued to ramble. At one point he asked her to jump back in with her thoughts, but then didn't let her speak. She may not have seen 12 Monkeys, but may have had reasons to eliminate the other 3 answers. So unless they edit parts of the decision making - which I don't think they do - I didn't understand why he made his decision without letting his girlfriend speak again.