Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

[goldroadfanatic]

What happened at the $16,000 question goes against the rules and precedent of the show. Whenever someone says one of the answers and "Final Answer" afterwards, the show honors the decision and locks it in. If you spoke before you thought, locked in an answer impulsively, and your final answer was wrong, you drop down to the last safe haven and leave with that amount or go home empty-handed.

I understand this game was for charity and there's a guaranteed $32,000 for celebrity players, but I feel that producers needed to be consistent with the rules no matter who was playing. In previous instances, those who locked in an incorrect answer, even if they didn't intend to, were ruled incorrect and left the game with their guaranteed amounts (or nothing) like the clip below.

I'm flabbergasted.

[AvsFan]

I think the charity nature of the show combined with the fact that it was an obvious verbal error is what pushed the judges to let her change.

After the commercial break, they should have made her restate her new final answer followed by "final answer", just to make it official.

[LiteBulb88]

I agree with everything goldenroadfanatic said--charity or not, "final answer" has been in the Millionaire vernacular since day 1, and it's meant your answer is locked in and can't be changed. Letting her change her answer was a terrible ruling.

[Mr. Weatherman]

Man........

This is tough.  Having just watched, I’m inclined to go with the judges.  In the instance pointed about above — which, by the way, I agree with how it was handled then — the contestant never discussed the actual correct answer.  She blurted out the first option that said “Slam-“ without thinking through the remaining answers. 

In tonight’s case, there was extensive discussion, and a consensus was made between the contestant and her guest to select an answer.  Had it not been for that, the judges would have been 100% correct in only allowing the initial ‘final answer’, as was the case before.  However, she did have her choice figured out, and it was clear what her intended choice was.  Barring any prior instances where a contestant had a pre-determined answer, stated the answer but then gave an incorrect choice that couldn’t be reversed, I think they made the right call.  That being said, they’ve now set a potentially dangerous precedent and need to address it.

I’m also not sure I would disagree had they not allowed to her to change her answer.  I’m something like 55/45 in favor.

[PatrickRox80]

"Final answer" means "final answer". She shouldn't have been allowed to change it.

[gamesurf]

Every few years, somebody on "Wheel of Fortune" mispronounces a word solving a puzzle they obviously know and loses out on a bunch of money. Every few years when that happens, "Wheel of Fortune missolve" starts trending and there's a collective outrage of "WTF they should have won", even though that rule has been consistently enforced for over 40 years and there's tons of precedent to back that up. It's fair, but that doesn't stop it from making the news in a negative way over and over.

If fairness is the number one issue, she absolutely should have been ruled incorrect and sent off with a "well, we're guaranteeing your charity $32,000 despite the mistake." It isn't fair to the other contestants who made that same mistake and were ruled incorrect if you break that precedent.

But fairness isn't the number one issue. The goal of Millionaire is to make good TV. If I'm Michael Davies, I don't want some controversial decision like that happening on the second episode of my big primetime event, getting the show trending for the wrong reasons, and overshadowing the rest of the series.

I don't like the decision and I think she should have been ruled incorrect, but I see why it was made. Chalk it up as "famous people don't get held to the same standard as regular folks", volume #16,000.

[Mr. Weatherman]

Our group aside, would it have been as big of a deal if they hadn’t thrown to commercial and instead edited the reveal to look as though the decision was made on the fly?  The pause in action to “let the judges decide” made a greater deal out of the moment for those watching.  I’d have to think articles will be written about this later today.  Might even make television news.  Had it simply been edited as one scene, 99% of the general public wouldn’t think any different and it probably wouldn’t be newsworthy. 

Also, given there was no studio audience, there would be virtually no chance of the ‘stop tape’ moment being leaked.  In fact, they could have easily edited the wrong answer moment out completely, and we wouldn’t even be having this discussion — just depends if it would have been an S&P issue.

In hindsight, S&P may well be the reason the mistake was aired and handled the way it was.

[gamesurf]

If this were a Mark Burnett production, I'd bet they would just reshoot her giving her answer entirely.

I do appreciate them keeping that in the cut, even if it wasn't ideal TV and I don't agree with the judge's decision.

[Trevor Tuominen]

I know I’m in the minority here, but I agree with the judges. Nikki knew the correct answer, but slipped up. Also, this is a celebrity edition. Contestants are guaranteed $32,000 no matter what.

[GameShowKid]

I agree with everything goldenroadfanatic said--charity or not, "final answer" has been in the Millionaire vernacular since day 1, and it's meant your answer is locked in and can't be changed. Letting her change her answer was a terrible ruling.

I agree as well.

[Flerbert419]

I would have sent her home with the $32,000 - it's the only right thing to do when Words Have Meanings. I wonder if they were afraid to put front and center that it's the minimum and 2/3 of the game really has no impact.

Also, if I still have my Phone-A-Friend I'm switching it for my helper. I know Jimmy continues to downplay his intelligence (he is 2/2 so far), but that 30 second timer versus unlimited time with those in studio seems well worth it.

That being said, they’ve now set a potentially dangerous precedent and need to address it.

Do they? The show is essentially off the air.

[BillyGr]

That being said, they'’ve now set a potentially dangerous precedent and need to address it.

Do they? The show is essentially off the air.

Seems they can just say it was allowed as a differential in rules on a Celebrity show, similar to other differences that shows do (like their own guarantee of a certain $ amount, or Celebrity Family Feud where Steve has re-read a question/allowed an answer in the bonus round when time already ran out).

[gamesurf]

I think what Flerbert is getting at is that once this series is over there is no guarantee that Millionaire will even be on US airwaves again, so there isn't much point in responding to the controversy unless they plan on making new episodes.

Plus, it hasn't made a big splash in the news. Nobody outside the hardcore game show community seems to still be talking about it. If their goal was to minimize the amount of blowback they'd get, they've been pretty successful. The only way they could have gotten less negative publicity is by fudging the integrity of the game even more and editing it out entirely, and I respect them for not doing that.

[Mr. Weatherman]

Keep in mind the above quote of mine being referenced was made the night of the show airing — written under the presumption this event would be newsworthy.  So far, I’ve only see one article from a reputable source pop up that really didn’t question the decision that much, so it seems this is flying under the radar quite well.  As such, I, too, disagree with my original comment now that we’re a few days into the future. 😝

[imhomerjay]

Much ado about nothing?

Even if it returns, there’s no need to address something that didn’t cause an issue.