The popular quiz show “Who wants to be a millionaire?” has been flickering for almost 25 years now. with Günther Jauch (66) on the German screens. It is obvious that the more than 1,500 shipments since then have not always been error-free. Usually it was dropouts among the candidates that caused laughter and/or an awkward silence. Every now and then the computer, the question editors and even the full professional Jauch had a slight snag. Here are the biggest glitches of the RTL show so far.
The latest faux pas happened in the recent “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” episode. No matter how hard Jauch and the director tried – the telephone joker of a candidate could not be reached at all. In the meantime, Jauch even doubted whether the joker had paid his mobile phone bill. What’s more: When an alternative number was called, the completely perplexed grandmother of the missing telephone joker answered the phone. When the announcement “No connection under this number” finally sounded during the final attempt, Jauch and his candidate gave up. Another joker was consulted, but without being able to help.
Speaking of indisposed telephone jokers: In the celebrity special from 2014, CDU politician Wolfgang Bosbach (70) was in the hot seat and didn’t know what to do with a question about the GDR. What could be more obvious than ringing the former Chancellor Angela Merkel (68), who was born in East Germany? But the Chancellor apparently had more important things to do at that moment and transferred Bosbach and Jauch, in which she did not even take off. Only later (too late) did she get in touch via SMS.
But Jauch himself is not perfect either. In 2015, for example, he blurted out when asked “Charlottenburg Palace and Palace … are in the same city?” – the possible answers: “A: Sanssouci, B: Neuschwanstein, C: Bellevue, D: Schönbrunn”. When the candidate desperately stated “that he had never been there before,” Jauch replied: “You’ve never been to Berlin?” Unconsciously, he had given the crucial hint that only Bellevue can apply.
A similar blunder only happened at the beginning of this year – also with the 16,000 euro question. “What can be heard from afar in Eduard Mörike’s spring poem ‘Er ist’s’? A: soft piano music; B: heavy drumbeat; C: soft harp tone; D: ten-minute guitar solo”. Jauch then enthusiastically recited the previous stanzas, but overlooked the fact that because of a rhyme there was only one possible selection: “Violets are already dreaming – listen, a soft harp sound from afar!” “I must have shot myself in the knee,” said the presenter contritely.
Apparently things didn’t go fast enough for Jauch in 2009. At the time, the moderator skipped the 2,000 euro question and went straight from 1,000 euros to 4,000 euros. Shortly thereafter, Jauch cited “an error in the game technology” as the reason, which apparently had swallowed the question. However, it was not of much use to the candidate, despite the hurdle he had been given, he fell back to 500 euros.
Only at Easter this year did the computer make a huge mistake, which caused questioning faces among the candidates, the audience and Jauch. The reason: Regarding the question “What term can be used to summarize empanadas, gyoza, manti, pierogi and ravioli?” the dubious answer options “A: key player, B: door striker, C: castle goalkeeper and D: cylinder defender” were displayed. Everyone looked in vain for dumplings, and it quickly became clear that the system had spit out an incongruous pair of questions and answers.
An embarrassing mix-up when researching a question in 2005 meant that the candidate had no chance of giving the right answer – because it didn’t even exist. At that time the question was: “Which Nobel Prize winner for physics was a multiple national football player in his country?” The answer options were: “A: Gustav Hertz, B: Niels Bohr, C: Pierre Curie, and D: Henri Becquerel”. However, the supposedly correct answer was not correct, since Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr was never a footballer – his brother Harald was. When the mistake circulated, the candidate who dropped out was allowed to ask another €500,000 question, but again he couldn’t come up with the (this time flawless) answer.
But the supposed opposite was also the case: When a candidate drew the 50:50 joker in 2010, many viewers thought that two correct answers were left: “With certain sales offers you often find the information ‘chipped…?’ – “… tuned, lowered'” or ‘… vaccinated, dewormed'”. Pet owners know that the latter answer is correct, but car freaks pointed out that the other answer could also be correct. RTL, however, replied that the term “chipped” is not used in the automotive sector – in contrast to “chip tuning”.
