Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

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bomtr
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by bomtr »

I didn't see all of this week, but what I did see was pretty dispiriting. How exactly did they select these contestants? Were they among the best they could find or just a random selection of people headed to college? Lots of examples have been cited already, but to me among the worst was not knowing the capital of Canada. Really? Think the capital might be Ontario? My god.

Tigershark, nothing wrong with curmudgeon at any age.

And I am sick sick sick of hearing 'I'm going to go with my gut.' Yeah, no reason for critical thinking, you just go with your gut, right out the door.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Winchell Factor »

This season has offered some really great contestants who've done well, and some contestants who almost give you the impression that they didn't know there would be quizzing. "Sure, I want to be a millionaire. I mean, who doesn't, amirite?"
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Vermonter
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Vermonter »

Tigershark wrote:Also, it seemed like a lot of times these kids lacked basic critical thinking skills. More than one of them immediately used a lifeline before reading the question a second time, thinking about it, and asking themselves "Do I really need to use a lifeline here?"
Not to excuse some really poor decisions by the incoming freshmen, but in these theme weeks the producers are under special pressure to keep the five shows to five shows. There might have been some dithering that got edited out. Or maybe not.
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MinnesotaMyron
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by MinnesotaMyron »

Winchell Factor wrote:This season has offered some really great contestants who've done well, and some contestants who almost give you the impression that they didn't know there would be quizzing. "Sure, I want to be a millionaire. I mean, who doesn't, amirite?"
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by kprather895 »

Tigershark wrote:Same goes for the kid who asked the audience where the Middle East was. (I don't even know where to begin with the fact that majority of audience didn't know the answer.)
What happened there is the contestant accidentally led the audience away from the answer by saying "I know it's not southwest Asia". He probably misspoke, meaning to say southeast Asia, but I'd wager a good chunk of the audience migrated from D to A when he said that, resulting in the split.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Vermonter »

Wednesday's episode offered a great 'teachable moment' in how not to play the game:
Spoiler
$5,000 question: An old dietary adage worth remembering warns you to only eat shellfish in a month that contains what?

A: A Friday the 13th
B: The letter "r"
C: A lunar eclipse
D: 31 days

The player used all three lifelines to come up with the correct answer. (Her +1 thought it was C, because 'eclipse' and 'shellfish' kinda-sorta rhyme.) But had she just thought through the other answers, she would have discovered:

A: so some years, don't eat shellfish?
C: see above
D: eat in January and March, but not February?

I know it's tough up there but always spend a few seconds, particularly on the earlier questions, to think each answer through. They're not trying to trick you.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Volante »

Vermonter wrote:Wednesday's episode offered a great 'teachable moment' in how not to play the game:
Spoiler
$5,000 question: An old dietary adage worth remembering warns you to only eat shellfish in a month that contains what?

A: A Friday the 13th
...
A: so some years, don't eat shellfish?
Spoiler
I don't think it's possible for a year not to have at least one Friday the 13th, but they do get scattered all over. "Eat shellfish in only 1 to 3 different months each year?" is just as absurd though
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by kprather895 »

Vermonter wrote:Wednesday's episode offered a great 'teachable moment' in how not to play the game:
Spoiler
$5,000 question: An old dietary adage worth remembering warns you to only eat shellfish in a month that contains what?

A: A Friday the 13th
B: The letter "r"
C: A lunar eclipse
D: 31 days

The player used all three lifelines to come up with the correct answer. (Her +1 thought it was C, because 'eclipse' and 'shellfish' kinda-sorta rhyme.) But had she just thought through the other answers, she would have discovered:

A: so some years, don't eat shellfish?
C: see above
D: eat in January and March, but not February?

I know it's tough up there but always spend a few seconds, particularly on the earlier questions, to think each answer through. They're not trying to trick you.
Spoiler
I would have gotten the answer just fine, but I had the adage wrong. All this time, I thought it was DON'T eat shellfish in months containing the letter R.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by alietr »

She had that Abby Sciuto thing going on. Except Abby wouldn't have needed the help.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by seaborgium »

Volante wrote:
Vermonter wrote:Wednesday's episode offered a great 'teachable moment' in how not to play the game:
Spoiler
$5,000 question: An old dietary adage worth remembering warns you to only eat shellfish in a month that contains what?

A: A Friday the 13th
...
A: so some years, don't eat shellfish?
Spoiler
I don't think it's possible for a year not to have at least one Friday the 13th, but they do get scattered all over. "Eat shellfish in only 1 to 3 different months each year?" is just as absurd though
Spoiler
All years, leap and not, have each day of the week beginning at least one month.
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Vermonter
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Vermonter »

seaborgium wrote:
Volante wrote:
Vermonter wrote:Wednesday's episode offered a great 'teachable moment' in how not to play the game:
Spoiler
$5,000 question: An old dietary adage worth remembering warns you to only eat shellfish in a month that contains what?

A: A Friday the 13th
...
A: so some years, don't eat shellfish?
Spoiler
I don't think it's possible for a year not to have at least one Friday the 13th, but they do get scattered all over. "Eat shellfish in only 1 to 3 different months each year?" is just as absurd though
Spoiler
All years, leap and not, have each day of the week beginning at least one month.
Spoiler
Good to know! Should have pointed out that was my initial thought, not the facts. :)
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by MarkBarrett »

From the 10/9 show:

Sometimes on J! the contestants set themselves up for gripes about their lack of sports knowledge. It can also be employees of game shows that are deficient in the area as well:
Spoiler
Image

This is the kind of question that any of the prior hosts could have made a better game show moment from while Chris did little besides garnering a touch of laughter from the audience and polite applause:
Spoiler
Image
Even better is imagining Steve Harvey as a guest host to face it.

What happened to the contestant:
Spoiler
He knew it was Dwyane Wade. He guessed the CEO instead of the King and left with $5,000.
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Vermonter
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Vermonter »

MarkBarrett wrote:This is the kind of question that any of the prior hosts could have made a better game show moment from while Chris did little besides garnering a touch of laughter from the audience and polite applause:
Spoiler
Image
I thought Chris did well with that given the distinct possibility of offending nearly a quarter of the world's population.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by kprather895 »

Vermonter wrote:
MarkBarrett wrote:This is the kind of question that any of the prior hosts could have made a better game show moment from while Chris did little besides garnering a touch of laughter from the audience and polite applause:
Spoiler
Image
I thought Chris did well with that given the distinct possibility of offending nearly a quarter of the world's population.
Agreed. What would you have hoped for, Mark?
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by MarkBarrett »

kprather895 wrote:
Vermonter wrote:
MarkBarrett wrote:This is the kind of question that any of the prior hosts could have made a better game show moment from while Chris did little besides garnering a touch of laughter from the audience and polite applause:
Spoiler
Image
I thought Chris did well with that given the distinct possibility of offending nearly a quarter of the world's population.
Agreed. What would you have hoped for, Mark?
Chris did very well reading the question and that is fine and dandy. I'm still adjusting to his hosting style and I felt he could have drawn a bigger laugh before he got to the reading of it with facial expressions and hand motions. After he got through it all successfully Chris could have milked the moment better. Also, he could have set the table for the contestant to have a funny response in the area of asking for it to be reread.

Some of that did indeed happen. I just felt it was not strong enough.

Nothing needed to be offensive to anyone or any group and of course that cannot be allowed in 2015. Within the realms of good taste I thought that part of the stack could have been more entertaining. That's all.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Vermonter »

MarkBarrett wrote:Some of that did indeed happen. I just felt it was not strong enough.
I think he could have done a better job preparing for the pronunciation.

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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by alietr »

On today's show, I think his name was Brendan? Oh, man, was that funny. "Well, if I win the million ... " And then he even *said* he knew they had meatballs! I nearly fell off the couch. Sorry to have schadenfreude, but I had to laugh on that one.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by kprather895 »

alietr wrote:On today's show, I think his name was Brendan? Oh, man, was that funny. "Well, if I win the million ... " And then he even *said* he knew they had meatballs! I nearly fell off the couch. Sorry to have schadenfreude, but I had to laugh on that one.
That was a tough loss to watch. I did know it, but I can see where he got trapped. It's the first question of the game, the A, B and C choices are three world cities....and the D answer is Ikea. A long-time viewer of Millionaire, which Brenton said he is, would be conditioned to chuckle and write off that answer as a gag. From there, he went the spaghetti-and-meatballs route and chose Rome.

I think if he stepped back for a few seconds and tried to work "kitchens" (another key word) into it, he'd have smelled a rat and rethought the question.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Vermonter »

kprather895 wrote:
alietr wrote:On today's show, I think his name was Brendan? Oh, man, was that funny. "Well, if I win the million ... " And then he even *said* he knew they had meatballs! I nearly fell off the couch. Sorry to have schadenfreude, but I had to laugh on that one.
That was a tough loss to watch. I did know it, but I can see where he got trapped. It's the first question of the game, the A, B and C choices are three world cities....and the D answer is Ikea. A long-time viewer of Millionaire, which Brenton said he is, would be conditioned to chuckle and write off that answer as a gag. From there, he went the spaghetti-and-meatballs route and chose Rome.

I think if he stepped back for a few seconds and tried to work "kitchens" (another key word) into it, he'd have smelled a rat and rethought the question.
They used that question in the contestant warm-ups the day I was there, and it took most people (myself included) longer than usual to suss it out.

I was under the impression that they just nixed anyone who didn't reach $5,000 from the tape, so I was surprised to see that happen today.

As for the contestant before him,
Spoiler
I felt bad for Cash Money – that was way too neg-baity and … trivial for a $50k question.
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Re: Millionaire Season 16 Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by bomtr »

alietr wrote:On today's show, I think his name was Brendan? Oh, man, was that funny. "Well, if I win the million ... " And then he even *said* he knew they had meatballs! I nearly fell off the couch. Sorry to have schadenfreude, but I had to laugh on that one.
Some degree of your schadenfreude--and mine, I'll admit it--is that he also talked about how the show made him aware that it was okay to be smart. Smart like him. That's not something you should want to talk about until you're about $100k in. Even the host, I thought, had a bit more chuckle than sympathy in his outtro.
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