I know a lot of you are of the opinion that celebrities have no place in game shows, unless they're part of the game itself (think Pyramid or Password). Many people feel that celebrity episodes are basically stunt programming, and that the stars are taking contestant spaces away from "real" people who want to play the game.During last night's episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, actor Patricia Heaton took the hot seat to play for charity. Her question was ridiculously easy:
"If one euro is equal to $1.50, what is the value of five euros?"Her answer choices were:
- Thirty quarters
- Fifty dimes
- Seventy nickels
- Ninety pennies
Heaton chose to use the Phone a Friend lifeline, calling her husband, David Hunt, to ask him. Sadly, he asked her to repeat the question and they ran out of time. Eventually, Regis talked her through the math, and she got the right answer, but the whole thing was pretty ridiculous.
To her credit, Heaton said more than once that she was incredibly nervous, and it's possible that she saw that the question involved math, obviously not one of her strong subjects, and pretty much shut down. Still, this is very basic math, and there's no way that a regular contestant would get such an easy question at the $50,000 level.
Were you as surprised as I was at how Patricia Heaton handled her time in the hot seat? She always came across, to me at least, as an intelligent woman, so I was stunned that she struggled so much with the question. Is this a good example of why celebrity contestants shouldn't be used on game shows?
Photo courtesy ABC
Comments
Oh, the horror…the horror!
I think my favorite part was when Patricia said she wanted to ask her husband … because he’s European.
I’ll re-post my comments on facebook here, where they are supposed to be.
I would be nervous to get a math question in the hot seat but I was surprised because she had all the time she needed to do the math. No clock for celebrities.
If she really needed help why didn’t she just Ask the Expert, Jodi Piccoult would have surely been able to do the math, plus they can see the question and there is no time limit
And you still question the need for a clock, Jason?
“Ridiculously easy.”
I’m a senior-level copyeditor and fix language errors all day. For me it is ridiculously easy to know when to use “it’s” and when to use “its,” but that doesn’t make it so easy for those who struggle with grammar.
It has taken me some time to work out what I think my guess for the answer to the above question might be, but I’d like to know what the answer was. I might be wrong and, thus, just as stupid as this writer seems to think Patricia was.
(She wasn’t.)
The correct answer is 30 quarters.
I’m no math whiz either, believe you me. The point here is that if you’re going to be on a quiz show, you should be ready to answer basic questions in any category. If a question stumps you, then it’s imperative that you understand how the lifelines work, and which one would help you most. Ms. Heaton didn’t even make an attempt to answer the question until Regis jumped in and held her hand through the thought process.
But I do think that, for a question at the $50,000 level, that was a complete softball.
Myke, yes I do. A contestant should be able to take as long as they need because that’s how it has always been on Millionaire
Don’t forget she insulted everyone that’s not from middle america.
Boy…I know I asked for it…I should probably just let this go…but I can’t!
Congratulations, Jason! You just gave the lamest reason to do ANYTHING!
“Because that’s the way we’ve always done it” is a cop-out excuse that leaves you no room for progress…no room for possible improvement.
Yes, you risk failure through change…but by always blindly staying the course, you may also miss opportunities to actually make the game better.
No guts, no glory!
ONE FINAL COMMENT WHY THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE THE CLOCK ON THE PRIMETIME VERSION! WITHOUT THE CLOCK, PEOPLE WATCHING AT HOME WITH THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS COULD TALK ABOUT THE QUESTIONS ! ASK “WHAT DO YOU THINK THE ANSWER IS”? IT WAS QUALITY FAMILY TIME THAT IS LACKING IN OUR SOCIETY TODAY! THE OLD FORMAT BROUGHT ALL AGE GROUPS TOGETHER IN FRONT OF THE TV AND EVERYONE COULD PLAY ALONG! WITH THE CLOCK THERE IS NO TIME FOR THE PEOPLE AT HOME TO PLAY ALONG!
Sure there’s time, Walt…up to 45 seconds!
“What do you think the answer is, Timmy?”
“B, Dad.”
Four seconds.
In most homes today, the only time the whole family gathers around the TV together is if there’s only one TV in the house…and no computers or cell phones.
I would hope that the average American family is strong enough to survive a game show clock.
You know, there is one fundamental problem with one, and only one of Jason’s arguments.
That the changes have hurt the contestants overall.
Explain to me then, why the average contestant won more last season since any other season after the first syndicated season? The average prize money awarded per player in season 1 of Meredith’s run was about $32,028. The average prize of last season per player was $27,084. Seasons 2-6 hovered around $20,000, with the range being $19,930-$23,995. Not only this, but with the same number of episodes as seasons 4-6, the rule changes did result in fewer contestants because the game is taking longer—but the total amount given away is still the third highest average in syndicated history—and the two seasons higher than that had 20 more episodes. The last season with 195 episodes, season 3, actually gave away less total money than this season with 175 episodes.
The reason why the first season had the most money of any is simple. The questions were still easier. Harder than in primetime, but easier than they became later on. They got harder still in about season 3. Season 1 was also inflated because it had syndicated Millionaire’s only 2 $1,000,000 winners.
While no contestants even won $500,000 last season, more contestants were winning $250,000 and WAY more contestants were getting to $50,000 and $100,000.
The point is, overall, the changes helped—because if I say so myself, the increase in average total winnings has to be due to the new rules because I think the questions have not gotten any easier. So while changes hurt some contestants, they helped more contestants. Jason, I believe your strong position is solely due to the fact that you are one of the contestants the changes hurt. I don’t blame you. And personally, I should note, I agree with you. I would rather not have the clock. But I am just more understanding of the reasoning why it came about than you. And the fact show that bottom line, while the clock is not good for the contestants per se, obviously the addition of ATE and POSSIBLY 50:50′s replacement with Double Dip (not sure if that does much more than just make the game more exciting) helps the average contestant.
Omg! I give up posting anything on this site ever again! So many personal put downs and sarcastic remarks! It’s a gameshow web site! It was fun! See you all around!
I’m not seeing any personal attacks Walt – it’s a healthy debate as far as I can tell. Otherwise I would have said something much earlier.
I hope you’ll reconsider, as everyone’s viewpoint is more than welcome here.
Walt, nothing that was said here was that harsh by any party. In fact, this is one of the tamest sites I’ve ever seen. If you’re talking about my last post, I used the facts—the money won per contestant—to prove my point and I don’t know how you could call anything a “personal put downs” when you use the straight-up facts.
Sarcastic?…Yeah, sarcasm is a second language to me. But I certainly don’t mean to offend anyone…nor do I intend to make a personal attack against anyone.
I honestly think that my back-and-forth with Jason about the clock has been a respectful debate, and at the end of the day we can agree to disagree.
I trust that Carrie will slap my wrist if I cross the line.
Myke and Brandon seem to have proved me wrong. The clock has helped the contestants, I don’t know where Brandon got his statistics from but they seem to be undeniable. I humbly admit that the changes have, so far, been beneficial to the contestants, overall.
I still say that Millionaire is more enjoyable to watch when their is no clock. After watching the Prime Time revival and also the Regis reruns on GSN I much more enjoyed the original formating.
And that I can agree with. It’s more fun to watch when they edit down the easy questions as short as possible and draw out on the bigger questions as long as possible. The clock just provides a different type of stress.
And I would argue Jason that those statistics—from WWTBAM.BIZ which $500,000 season 3 winner Jeff Gross operates—aren’t proof that the clock helps. Of course the clock doesn’t help. Most contestant can handle it, but the restriction cannot help. It’s proof moreso to me that either the questions are a little easier or that ATE and, in some cases, Double Dip, is truly useful and that’s why contestants won more.
During this run—although the $1,000,000 question tomorrow will probably change this—the prizes given away have been way less than Regis’ original run—barely over the average syndicated winnings. I think the contestants aren’t as good and the questions lean toward the difficult side, although a touch easier than the syndicated version, and that’s why. I think the first episode’s questions were extremely easy but nobody capitalized. I can’t wait to see how the final episode works out nonetheless.
The final thing I want to say on this subject is that the ONLY way the clock could help is maybe contestants have less time to second guess themselves, but I attribute most if not all of the average prize money increases to Ask the Expert, a lifeline that burns a lot of time but is definately useful.
Oh yeah, I’ve seen that site before. I forgot about it. I suppose I’m not “most contestants”, although I attribute my downfall to a combination of a tough question for a particular level, bad usage of life lines and the clock’s pressure causing me to lose sight of my strategy.
I too noticed that the 10th Anniversary Prime Time run has been somewhat disappointing, in terms of prize money. I remember in the original Prime Time it was almost a regular occurrence to see a 125,000 dollar winner and to see people get up to 32 without using any life lines. I attributed contest’s lack of success to the clock, although I know now that it can’t be completely to blame.
Ask The Expert can be helpful, it really is the best life line they added. It’s better than PAF but not quite as good as ATA.
There are a couple of reasons you can’t necessarily say that either. ATA is only useful early on—when the questions are not TOO hard. The problem with ATA is that the audience can’t express the degree of how sure they are—all votes are equal irregardless. I would say in the syndicated version ATA has almost been perfect up to question 8 with some exceptions and totally useless after question 10 with some exceptions. That’s why people always used it first—because PAF can just tell you “I am only 40% sure” and you can still walk away then, and so can ATE.
They are all more useful than Switch the Question however, but I do kind of think that Switch the Question would have been more useful had you been able to use it early in the game.
I missed the episode. Math is not my strong suit, and sometimes a question might catch some people off guard.
She is the sexiest woman in the world, so just looking at her does it all for me!
This conduct is not excusable by any means. If you can’t do math, you should not be on a game show. Next time, give them a competency test before letting them on the show.
Half of the celebs for Celebrity Jeopardy don’t even know how to play Jeopardy. And…tell me again why A) you don’t know how to play such a famous game and B) you didn’t study the game before playing it?