A contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire missed out on over £100,000 after messing up a simple World Cup question. The contestant, Marc Offenbacher, was cruising through the questions and had already answered 11 correctly. However, his luck ran out when he was asked a World Cup question worth €125,000 (£108,000).
Offenbacher, who admitted he was not a sports fan, struggled with the question: “What is the most common final score in men’s Fifa World Cup finals? 1–0? 2–1? 3–1? Or 4–2?” Despite using lifelines and asking the audience for help, he still got it wrong and walked away with just €500 (£435) instead of the life-changing amount he could have won.
The host, Gunther Jauch, revealed that the most common final score in World Cup finals was actually 4–2, which happened four times in history. This mistake cost Offenbacher over £100k, leaving him disappointed after such a promising run on the show. It goes to show that even the simplest of questions can trip you up when it comes to quiz shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Not really sure why this matters, but it’s kind of funny how Offenbacher, who admitted he’s not a sports fan, got a football question worth a huge amount of money. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like he should have brushed up on his sports knowledge before going on the show. But hey, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, right? And in Offenbacher’s case, sports trivia was definitely not his forte.
The audience member who helped Offenbacher with the question made a good point about statistically common final scores in football matches. But sometimes, statistics can be misleading, especially when it comes to a high-pressure situation like a quiz show. Offenbacher’s decision to rule out 4–2 based on historical trends ended up costing him a significant amount of money. It’s a tough break for him, but that’s the nature of game shows – one wrong move can make all the the difference between winning big and going home with just a fraction of the prize money.
In the end, Offenbacher’s missed opportunity serves as a reminder to always be prepared for the unexpected, especially when it comes to quiz shows. You never know when a seemingly simple question could trip you up and cost you a life-changing amount of money. Despite his disappointment, Offenbacher can take solace in the fact that he made it as far as he did and gave it his best shot. And who knows, maybe he’ll get another chance to test his knowledge and win big in the future.
