An audience member of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has opened up about two shocking blunders that never made the final cuts of the iconic gameshow.
Initially presented by Chris Tarrant, the show has been a hit since it was first launched in 1999.
The show has a simple premise – contestants must answer increasingly difficult multiple-choice questions successfully to be in with a chance of becoming a millionaire.
There is famously some help available and contestants can phone a friend or take the 50:50 lifeline, cutting the number of potential correct answers down from four to two.
Even after Chris gave up his role on the show in 2013 after a mini-stroke, the show was successfully revived in 2018 with Jeremy Clarkson as its new host.
But the seemingly simple format, according to this audience member, can lead to some eye-popping blunders within the studio itself.
An audience member of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has opened up about two shocking blunders that never made the final cuts of the iconic gameshow
Taking to Reddit to share their story, the anonymous audience member explained that they saw the show being filmed live when Chris Tarrant was still its host
Taking to Reddit to share their story, the anonymous audience member explained that they saw the show being filmed live when Chris Tarrant was still its host.
They said that while ‘lots of interesting things happened’, there were two key incidents that didn’t actually get shown on screen.
The poster wrote: ‘A contestant got an answer wrong and lost all but £1000. But, the show stopped and some techies came out and said there had been a technical fault so they had to do the sequence again.
‘So they re-filmed that sequence. The trouble was the contestant now knew the correct answer – but they still had to answer it wrongly – again.’
But while this blunder might have been frustrating for the contestant in question, another managed to seriously profit from a mistake on the part of the show’s host.
The poster revealed: ‘The right answer to a £2,000 movie question was the name of the movie “She”.
‘But the contestant mumbled and when she said ‘C’ Tarrant misheard it as ‘She’ – so she got it right when she shouldn’t have.
‘There was a break then (there were LOTS of breaks) and Tarrant was clearly informed that he had misheard the answer, the audience knew it, and what’s more the contestant had chosen not to point this out.’
They said that while ‘lots of interesting things happened’, there were two key incidents that didn’t actually get shown on screen – both of which shocked the audience
Because the contestant held their nerve and didn’t draw any attention to the mistake, the host appeared to have been made aware of it during the break.
The Redditor explained that he then did everything in his power to encourage her not to progress on the show.
They wrote: ‘After the break Tarrant and the contestant came back and his attitude had clearly changed. Hate to say this but he really didn’t want her to get any further.
‘He discouraged her at every point trying to persuade her to take her winnings and not go to the next step. But she stuck in there.
‘She walked off with £32,000 and you could see in Tarrant’s face that he really wasn’t pleased. A few weeks later I watched the episode on TV. They had totally cut that bit out.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to ITV for comment.
Earlier this year ITV announced a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire spin-off series with Jeremy Clarkson – and it’s absolutely ruthless.
Millionaire Hot Seat will see 18 episodes in a fast-paced version of the classic show.
Six players will compete against the clock and one another as they answer questions in a bid to win a big cash prize.
It will be presented by former Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson, who has fronted the original show since 2018.
The format of the new game sees contestants queue for the Hot Seat where one person at a time will face Jeremy.
They then have to answer question on the Million Pound Money Ladder.
Only correct answers allow the players to climb up the ladder and a wrong answer will kick them out of the game, and decrease the top prize.
If a participant passes, they remain in the game and go to the back of the line for the Hot Seat, but in a ruthless twist they aren’t promised another turn.
The passed question is then given to the next player who must answer it correctly to stay.
In another savage twist, only the top prize left on the ladder can be won and the player taking on the question has to get it right to take it home.
Millionaire Hot Seat is set to hit UK screens in 2026, with filming beginning this November.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is available to stream on ITVX.
