# Who wants to be a millionaire?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/8711>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 10, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/8711 "2000-03-10T21:08:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2000, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/8711/21 "2000-03-16T01:59:00Z")

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When the person says, ‘that is my final answer’ its right then that they show Regis what the right answer is. So the person must say that.

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**Author:** ![Pop\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@Pop\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pop_Joe)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/8711/22 "2000-03-17T03:59:00Z")

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What I’ve been wondering is - With the Phone-a-Friend, why does Regis always tell the friend on the line, “I know you can’t see us right now, but…”? Isn’t this person sitting at home and watching the show? Is each Phone-a-Friend sent away from the TV when the “Millionaire” comes on? Will someone please answer this for me?

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/8711/23 "2000-03-17T05:43:00Z")

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The show is not live. It’s taped. Therefore, it is not on the air at the time the friend is called.

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/8711/24 "2000-03-17T14:15:00Z")

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The show is taped, not live, so the “phone a friends” are not sitting in front of the TV watching the show. They’re at their homes or offices, waiting for a call that may or may not come.

In my case, the show I taped was on the air 7 days after taping. Right now, the time lag is probably greater than that.

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/8711/25 "2000-03-17T16:35:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> In fact, I think there was one contestant who was so cocky, on the last question he used the phone a friend and called his folks. He sat there as the time ticked off, then commented that he didn’t need help, he just wanted to tell them he was going to win the million. And then he did. (I heard that, didn’t see it.)

Yep, it happened. It was the first person to actually win a million. (I think there have only been two.) The question was “Who was the only US President to ever appear on _Laugh In_?”. The guy called his father and said “I just wanted to let you know that I’m about to win a million dollars because the only US President to ever appear on _Laugh In_ was Richard Nixon and that’s my final answer.”

It was the only lifeline he used, btw.

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“It turns out it isn’t so much a law of physics as it is a local ordinance.”

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