Who Wants to Be a Millionaire fans 'gutted' at £1m question loss
Viewers of ITV's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire were left "gutted" after a player lost on the £1 million question. Could you have answered it correctly?
Nicholas Bennett from West Hampstead in London was on the popular quiz show last night (Sunday, May 25).
After flying through the questions, he reached the 15th and final question with two lifelines to use.
However, it was not meant to be, answering the question wrong and walking away with £125,000, the biggest amount of money lost in the show's history.
One fan of the show said: "That contestant was so good and I am actually proper gutted he didn't win the million."
Another said: "Wow, what a brave guy on who wants to be a millionaire, gutted for him."
Others were stunned by Bennett getting so far.
One said: "12 out of 15 questions correct on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire without lifelines is impressive. Super impressive."
"That bloke on who wants to be a millionaire right now is insane," a second said.
Today marks 25 years since the world's most successful gameshow 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' first hit our TV screens! In 25 years, this ground-breaking format has been adapted in over 130 countries, consistently ranking as the #1 best travelling format of all time in… pic.twitter.com/lGbxcNpYEg
— Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (@MillionaireUK) September 4, 2023
Mr Bennett's final question was as follows:
'Which of these words, each coined by a famous writer, was derived from the tale of a fairytale about three princes?'
His options were A) Pandemonium, B) Serendipity, C) Utopia and D) Yahoo.
Nicholas used both his lifelines to try and answer, but neither Ask Jeremy nor the Phone a Friend gave him the answer.
Despite this, he risked it with D) Yahoo, however, it was B) Serendipity that was correct.
Just six contestants have received the top prize of £1 million during the show's history.
Former garden designer Judith Keppel was the first in November 2000, and went on to become part of a team of quiz experts for the BBC game show Eggheads.
Former physics teacher David Edwards was second in April 2001, followed by banker Robert Brydges in September 2001.
Pat Gibson, a multiple world-champion Irish quiz player, became the show's fourth winner in April 2004 and also went on to join Eggheads.
Civil servant Ingram Wilcox was the fifth winner in September 2006, with history and politics teacher Donald Fear, the sixth and first winner during Clarkson's tenure as host in September 2020.
Recommended reading:
Are you a top quizzer? How to apply for ITV's next series of The 1 per cent Club
Apply for ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire as Jeremy Clarkson confirms return
All to know about David Tennant's new ITV quiz show Genius Game
Charles Ingram, then an army major, was found to have cheated at winning the series in September 2001.
The popular ITV game show originally ran from 1998 to 2014, with Chris Tarrant at the helm.
It was then rebooted in 2018 with former Top Gear presenter Clarkson taking over the role as host.
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