Who wants to be a millionaire? with the wrong question: It is not the first glitch

Show with Günther Jauch
Wrong question on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”: Not the first glitch in the quiz show

Günther Jauch has been entertaining the audience with exciting quiz questions on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” for 25 years. However, in the show on Tuesday evening, the RTL editorial team made a mistake with the 32,000 euro question: all possible answers were wrong, and the question was also unanswerable. In the past of “WWM”, several candidates had already suffered a similar fate.

“Who wants to be a millionaire?”: These questions also cause problems

The first similar glitch occurred in 2003. When asked “Every rectangle is a…?” the broadcaster gave the options “A: rhombus”, “B: square”, “C: trapezoid” and “D: parallelogram”. Candidate Astrid Bäck was unable to answer this and voluntarily dropped out with 8,000 euros. Jauch said parallelogram was the correct answer – but later had to admit that trapezoid was also correct. Bäck was therefore able to compete again and took her chance. On her second attempt she went home with double the winnings of 16,000 euros.

The question of which Nobel Prize winner in physics was a multiple national football player for his country was even worse researched in 2005. Günther Jauch gave the answers as the four Nobel Prize winners in physics: Gustav Hertz, Niels Bohr, Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel. Candidate Matthias Pohl found the game for 500,000 euros too risky, he also dropped out and was presented with the correct answer of the Dane Niels Bohr.

But the editors – at that time still reliant on information in books – had misunderstood an error in the Brockhaus dictionary and all four possible answers were incorrect. Niels Bohr never played football, but his brother Harald, a mathematician, played for the national team. The candidate was able to play again here, but was unable to increase his winnings of 125,000 euros.

No second chance despite wrong question

Two and eight years later, there was again a stir about the questions on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” In 2007, a candidate had to pass on the following question: “Which Grimm fairy tale ends with permission to make a fur hat out of a mouse?” The possible answers were “A: Hansel and Gretel, B: The Frog Prince, C: Sleeping Beauty or D: Cinderella.”

Later, a fairy tale expert complained that the absolutely correct answer, A, was not correct because this version only appeared in a regionally published volume. However, there was still no second chance. According to the “FAZ”, the editorial team stated that they did not want to “invest any more working time in discussing the matter”.

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In 2013, RTL also took a tough stance in a dispute over a question. Jérôme Adjallé suffered a particularly bitter loss, falling from 125,000 to 500 euros because he trusted the answer of his additional joker. Law professor Maximilian Herberger later supported the woman who had acted as the audience joker. “Her answer was not wrong, but RTL's explanation was,” said Herberger. The 125,000 euro threshold was about the question: “If someone takes a seat in the stands, does that actually happen in order to…?” – “A: to be crowned”, “B: to dispense justice”, “C: to hold orgies” or “D: to distribute alms”. The joker suggested answer D, but B should have been the correct answer. “The tribunal was indeed the place where the tribune had his chair. However, the tribune was not a judicial magistrate and never dispensed justice,” objected Herberger – RTL saw it differently and did not waste a second chance.

Taylor Swift defeats Elon Musk

The show has now managed to get through eleven years without such a mishap – until the 19th season. In the show on September 4, candidate Laura Harbig was unable to correctly answer the question “Who have the Germans not googled in the category 'International Personalities' in 2023 other than US pop star Taylor Swift?” All four possible answers were wrong – it was Taylor Swift herself. RTL has since admitted the mistake, which cost the candidate 31,500 euros for tipping Elon Musk. Harbig is allowed to compete again in the next “3 million euro week”.

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