"Who wants to be a millionaire?": Viewers irritated by an unusual 8,000 euro question

Latin teacher Thomas Müller is struggling with the 8,000-euro question.image: screenshot rtl

"Who wants to be a millionaire?": Viewers criticize an unusual 8,000-euro question

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There should be a Christmas edition of "Who wants to be a millionaire?" become. The editors had specially built up a bunch of gift packages from which the candidates could choose their surprise. And for one candidate, after 21 years of trying to apply, the wish to sit on the council chair for the first time came true. But it wasn't enough for a happy ending.

The food journalist Rebecca Hoffmann. picture: Screenshot RTL

Rebecca Hoffmann from Berlin is the first to make it onto the Jauch chair. She is a freelance journalist for food and travel. And she chooses the mode with four jokers. As a Christmas surprise, she pulls an additional security level and places it at 32,000 euros. And she's doing pretty well up to that point. The question is: "The killer whale is one of the very few animal species in which, like humans, which phenomenon occurs? Midlife crisis, obstinacy in old age, menopause or senile bed escape?"

First, she guesses old age stubbornness. "That's when the eyes are a bit like that..." Jauch rolls his eyes. And she gets the hint: "Oh no ... not cataracts and glaucoma." Triumphantly, she then asks the moderator: "Do you know my jokers?" He says no and she explains that she has a marine biologist on the phone - but then takes the 50:50 joker. Why is she doing this? Nobody understands that.

The 50/50 joker leaves old age and menopause. "Midlife is what men get when they look for younger people and expensive cars and stuff like that," the candidate ponders aloud. But Jauch only jokes:

"Should I go through the menopause again, I'll go to Sat.1 at the most." Günther Jauch

The candidate finally calls her marine biologist friend. Without hesitation, he goes for menopause. "Toothed whales go through menopause and killer whales are toothed whales." And he's right.

"I should have just trusted myself a bit more - well, youthful stubbornness," summarizes the candidate her own situation. After that, their luck is overstrained: "What does the concert master of an orchestra do during a concert? Swing the baton, sit at the director's desk, play an instrument, operate the curtain?" She decides to "sit at the director's desk". However, the concert master plays the first violin and so it falls back to 32,000 euros. With this prize, the journalist wants to "take a little mental break" and finish renovating her living room, but she got stuck in the middle. "Now I'll get some help."

The Latin and sports teacher Thomas Müller (left) had no luck with Günther Jauch that evening. picture: Screenshot rtl

Latin and sports teacher Thomas Müller is the fastest at arranging the ingredients for a Dresdner Christstollen. He comes from Mellingen. He drives an East German Trabant "as a Sunday car", teaches his own son in class and wears a stopwatch around his neck. For 21 years he has been trying to get on the advice chair at Jauch. "Because they need the money," Jauch taunts. "Too – but I also really like her as a personality."

He chooses the 4-joker variant and also draws the double joker for telephone or audience as a gift. Up to the 8000 euro question, he has a fairly easy march through. But then it becomes difficult.

Then comes the 8000 euro question. And she is quite a chunk: "In 'Glitterschnitter' the reader meets again... ? Sams, Franz Eberhofer, Herr Lehmann, Lisbeth Salander?"

The candidate has no idea. He asks the audience and unfortunately only has an indifferent assessment: 33 percent are for Sams, 42 for Franz Eberhofer, 25 for Herr Lehmann and 0 percent for Lisbeth Salander.

Candidate Müller asks again for the opinion of an individual viewer. But nobody gets up. "Great result" jokes Jauch and asks if anyone can rule something out. Finally a young man stands up. He excludes Eberhofer and commits himself to Sams on a trial basis. But the candidate is uncomfortable with it. As one of his phone jokers, he has WWM winner and history professor Eckhard Freise. They had "felt three days on the phone" to prepare, he says. "Freise certainly knows that, but if I call at 8,000 euros, he'll kill me," he reflects. He calls him anyway.

The former millionaire winner is in his basement right now and the phone has an unbearable echo. "You have to push the speakerphone button away," says Jauch. "If I knew where it was..." replies the history professor. Jauch takes this as an opportunity to make fun of academics in general. "Know everything, but unfit for life." He calls again and then it works. Freise guesses Mr. Lehmann, also knows the author Sven Regener, but is not sure. The candidate also draws his second telephone joker, which he has in this issue thanks to a Christmas present. But the lady has no idea. Finally he commits himself to Mr. Lehmann. "I can hide behind a million dollar winner." And he's right. The level of difficulty of the 8,000-euro question met with incomprehension among the viewers.

Jauch asks him what he would do with the money. "I would actually need almost everything, we would have to play the million almost twice to pay off everything I need", when Jauch looks in disbelief, the wife explains in the audience: "We have five children."

The teacher can still answer the 16,000 euro question about world heritage sites, but then it becomes difficult for him: "Who was sentenced to one year in prison without parole in September? Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi?" "My wife knows that. I know exactly what she's doing, she shakes her head and says: don't gamble!" Jauch checks for him: "At the moment she looks like a sphinx." The teacher speculates: "That's deceptive - unless she wants to kill with her eyes." He ends up betting on Silvio Berlusconi, but it was Sarkozy. Thus, the teacher falls back to 500 euros.

"Are you taking him on again?" asks Jauch's wife and then continues to joke in an unusually nasty way: "The children get last year's speculoos. A sad Christmas from Thomas Müller. Now you just have to keep working."

Bremen's Vanessa-Melanie Decker is the winner of the evening. picture: Screenshot RTL

Vanessa-Melanie Decker, tech sales manager at a brewery in Bremen, will be leading the evening. As the fastest, she arranges the beginning of Luke's Gospel Chapter 2 in a good ten seconds. She chooses four jokers, gets the security level joker and sets it to 32,000. When asked the 500,000 euro question, she gives up: "The so-called Adam's Bridge is a ... bone anomaly, an island chain off India, a deep-sea coral or a ship's rope ladder?". And so she wins 125,000 euros without any frills. She wants to invest some of the money in a luxury upgrade to her Mexico vacation.