WWTBA Millionaire Question

[tonypitt]

Went to 3 showings of WWTBAM today trying to get into the hot seat. Came close but never made it.

Funniest thing was a young guy who was acting rather cocky that lost on the 3rd question.

Q: (paraphrase) Which of the following people has a famous American university named after him?

A: Mickey Mouse
B: John (?) Harvard
C: Jethro Tull
D: (I forget this one)

He chose the obvious answer--Jethro Tull--and said "final answer" before the host could stop him.

At any rate, here's my question: When the time is running out, do they just wrap things up by throwing in really hard questions?

On one of the visits today (the one where the above happened), a total of 3 people got to play. When the 3rd person was seated, I knew that time was rather short. Sure enough, his 4th question was a really tough, fairly obscure question about pool. He missed it. End of show.

On a previous visit we had seen something similar happen where a guest got what really seemed like a trick question to end the show.

I'm guessing that this is how they make sure that they don't go too long. Can anyone confirm that?

If that is so, it seems like one's best chance of ever making it to a million would be to be the 1st player.

FWIW, the host today said that yesterday they had given away 2 cruises.

 

[SOLISIMO]

Im confused, I learned to play guitar at the Jethro Tull Community College, how was he wrong:veryconfu They even threw in a few Math credits for free:animwink:

 

[tonypitt]

Im confused, I learned to play guitar at the Jethro Tull Community College, how was he wrong:veryconfu They even threw in a few Math credits for free:animwink:

If I were related to this guy I could envision giving annual Christmas gifts honoring his time at Jethro Tull University.

 

[Floridasunshine]

Maybe Jethro Tullane?

 

[SOLISIMO]

If I were related to this guy I could envision giving annual Christmas gifts honoring his time at Jethro Tull University.

:sohappy: but to answer your question and this is just my opinion, it would be interesting to see how difficult the questions are during the different seasons. For example: are the questions really hard when its busy season where they need to cycle through the groups rather quickly to keep the wait times shorter. Maybee they are easier during slow season where they dont have 100 people outside waiting to play:veryconfu

 

[tonypitt]

:sohappy: but to answer your question and this is just my opinion, it would be interesting to see how difficult the questions are during the different seasons. For example: are the questions really hard when its busy season where they need to cycle through the groups rather quickly to keep the wait times shorter. Maybee they are easier during slow season where they dont have 100 people outside waiting to play:veryconfu

Today seemed moderately busy. Never a capacity crowd at WWTBAM. There were 8 shows scheduled today. Shows were 50-60 minutes apart.

All 3 of the shows I was at ended after about 30 minutes, which makes sense when you figure they need 5 minutes to clear the auditorium and about 10 minutes to reset.

Since the shows are at pre-scheduled time, crowd size/numbers waiting on a given day is likely not as much of a factor in when the hard questions show up as when the next show (or lunch time) is scheduled.

I wonder if during peak times they try to turn shows more frequently than 50 minutes apart.

 

[Amber]

My friend has been in the hot seat numerous times, and there were a few times that he was allowed to carry over into the next show. He got a break while the first show ended and the seats were loaded for the next show. That was before the pre-scheduled shows were going on, although he has carried over once since then. Now, it seems like they just let it go until he gets a question wrong. I don't recall ever feeling rushed or that the questions were unusually hard.

 

[Coasterbp]

As someone who is "pretty familiar" with the show...

Questions are stacked (meaning, putting 15 different questions in a group for a contestant to play) at least a day or two in advance. All the stacks for the day are preset and aren't messed around with. (meaning, swapping questions in and out of stacks because of trying to get someone to bomb out.)

Stacks can't be changed in the middle of a show. So swapping questions out due to "running out of time" doesn't happen. "Running out of time" doesn't happen either. The contestant is brought back for the next show as a carryover as stated.