# How To Cheat at Millionaire **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 26, 2004, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177 "2004-05-26T14:18:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/41 "2004-05-28T05:16:00Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > I believe the question was about surnames, not given names. In Russian, a woman’s surname is traditionally her father’s or her husband’s, plus an “a” at the end. I thought I heard the question as “women’s names”. If it is as you say, then my objection is indeed invalid. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/42 "2004-05-28T06:23:36Z")
#6, I think you are right. There was no distinction made. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/43 "2004-05-28T12:08:33Z")
> [@Number Six](#): > > There was a cheating scandal on the British version of Millionaire. It involved a variety of schemes, but primarily involved the wife of the contestant and a friend sitting in the audience and coughing to indicate correct answers when the contestant got stumped. They ran a special on it down here called, “Who wants to steal a million?” The coughing was a sceond tactic, the first was to get his brother who was int he backstage audience, to call one of four phones situated about his body, causing them to vibrate. By where they were positioned he could figure out what the answer was. The brother wasn’t allowed to use phones in the studio, so he went outside, and well t became a bit suspicious halfway through the show, so he had to stay inside. What I don’t understand is why the brother didn’t just go on millionaire? Then on the next episode they started the coughing, and it was so obvious too… and this guy obviously didn’t know a thing. He didn’t get his million dollars. ---
**Author:** ![RobuSensei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/44 "2004-05-28T15:00:51Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The right answer is not highlighted on the host’s screen until the contestant says the magic words “Final Answer”. But the hosts aren’t so stupid that they don’t know any of the answers themselves, and sometimes they’ll let one slip. If that happens, a substitute question will be asked and the booboo will not air. Unless it’s the Japanese version, and it’s sufficiently funny, I guess. (see my previous post…) ---
**Author:** ![threeorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/45 "2004-05-29T03:35:05Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > #6, I think you are right. There was no distinction made. **Walloon** is correct; the question _was_ about surnames. ---
**Author:** ![SuperNova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SuperNova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNova)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/46 "2004-05-29T04:31:39Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > However, in a further twist, it turns out that none of the four answers provided is correct. The actual answer is 1. You need to know the rules of tennis fairly well to figure out how this would work, but it’s possible. I’ll bite. How? ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/47 "2004-05-29T21:00:28Z")
> [@Number Six](#): > > I would have thought the correct anser to be 0. Player A serves out. Player B does not return. Player A protests the call to the umpire. The umpire gives a warning. A continues to argue. Umpire awards a point, game, and finally set to B, who wins without swinging her racket. Or, even, this: Player A serves, falls down and breaks eir neck and must retire. Player B, having not returned serve because e was so stunned to see a broken neck, has 0 strokes but wins the match because A retires. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/48 "2004-05-29T21:21:00Z")
There’s no doubt that some contestants have tried to win this way. I don’t recall any that have, but I know for a fact several have had their friends use the computer to get the answer for them. A better way, I would think, would be to simply have several people at the friend’s house AND a couple of PC’s googling and maybe even a bookworm or two. A good debate team or trivia team would also be hard to beat. I’m not a big _Millionaire_ fan but I’ve seen it several times (when it was new) and usually do pretty good. I’ve got three or four books beside my recliner that I can check for just about any question you throw at me. I rarely need to check but so far the answer has been there with only a couple of exceptions pertaining to pop culture, my weak area. I don’t do a lot of TV and/or pop music. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/49 "2004-05-29T22:17:16Z")
Maybe Cecil could answer this question. It’s obvious we’d get the wrong answer from Marilyn vos Savant. Anyway: Even if the 50/50 is random, it _must_ eliminate at least one of the two weaker choices. It may eliminate them both, of course. Would that be a 33% chance of eliminating the two weakest choices? ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/50 "2004-05-29T22:55:11Z")
I haven’t seen the Meredith Viera version much, but I catch the re-runs with Regis pretty often. What I don’t understand is all the times that the phone-a-friend clearly has a group of people with him, but they don’t use a speaker phone. What inevitably ends up happening is the contestant reads the question, then the phone-a-friend repeats it for the other folks at his end. Then the contestant reads the four answers, and the phone a friend repeats them. By this point the thirty seconds are pretty much up and they usually get cut off before even offering an answer. Eric ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177/51 "2004-05-30T15:44:22Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Even if the 50/50 is random, it _must_ eliminate at least one of the two weaker choices. It may eliminate them both, of course. Would that be a 33% chance of eliminating the two weakest choices? Yes. If we take the correct answer out of the equasion, we are left with three answers, two of which will be eliminated. If we assume that two are weak answers, and one is a strong answer, then the only combinations that can be eliminated are: [ul] [li]WA1 and SA[/li][li]WA2 and SA[/li][li]WA1 and WA2[/li][/ul] So yes, in this case there is only a one in three chance of both weak answers being eliminated, and a two in three chance of the 50/50 taking out the strong answer. Where this all falls apart, however, is the 50/50 is _not_ random. Also, there is no guarantee that of the three incorrect answers, two will be weak and one will be stong. Further, what can be considered “weak” or “strong” is entirely subjective depending, on the knowledge of the contestant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-cheat-at-millionaire/247177.md?page=2)