DB engineer can answer million-dollar question

The Christmas special of "Who wants to be a millionaire?" turns into a gambling masterclass. The engineer from the railroad has a gut feeling about the object manipulation. His mother-in-law is desperate. But he is very cool. Jauch is speechless.

No matter how picturesquely the artificial snow trickled from the studio ceiling - 2023 really didn't end on a contemplative note on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". In fact, the very last contestant of the year unexpectedly caused a bang under the Christmas tree. "Oh, Mr. Jauch, I'm only sitting here in this chair once. I once heard that if you have a feeling of more than 25 percent, then you should take it," said Jens-Peter Voigt with a sympathetic and cool demeanor. Mind you, it was about 500,000 euros.

"Half a million hammer question," Günther Jauch shook his head, slightly taken but appreciative. Even the host hadn't really expected the surprising gambling skills of the jovial-looking father from Munich. In retrospect, it was probably a warning signal that Voigt had chosen the safe option. In the past, this has often proved to be a secret weapon for winning big on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Contestant with mother-in-law

In the case of the railroad engineer, however, there seemed to be less tactics than caution behind his choice. "My wife asked me to," he said. Even then, the candidate's "best mother-in-law in the world" was beaming in the audience. She had already predicted to Voigt 20 years ago: "One day you'll sit with Mr. Jauch and then I'll come with you." In the end, however, the mother-in-law was at her wits' end.

Hamburg Landungsbrücken, "Fury in the Slaughterhouse" and Spider-Man: Voigt got through the first rounds with aplomb. When it came to the name of the British Minister of Defense, he had to pass for the first time and asked his telephone joker. He was pretty sure that Jauch was asking for James Cleverly. Voigt proved his penchant for gambling for the first time. Since he had the 16,000 euros for sure, he didn't bet another joker and trusted his helper on the phone. Then things really got going.

"My wife said I could gamble up to 64(,000)," announced the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" contestant when he was asked in this very round which "Tristan Otto" millions of people in Berlin had already watched. After the 50:50 joker, Voigt was left with the choice between a T-Rex and a Stradivarius violin. He followed his logical instincts and was through to the next round thanks to the dinosaur.

In the following round, Jauch's candidate also had no idea what the eldest son of the Danish Crown Prince Frederik was called. The audience voted 76 percent in favor of the correct answer "Christian". Voigt had tended towards "Frederik". But here, too, there was no sign of the "fully comprehensive insurance" mentality criticized by Jauch, in which candidates double- and triple-check answers.

And Jauch was already reading out the €500,000 question in the festively decorated studio. "What is typically used in so-called object manipulation? A) Juggling balls & diabolos, B) hand mirrors & pocket watches; C) needle & thread, D) playing cards & nutshells." Instead of saying goodbye quickly, Voigt wanted to give his gambling urge full rein. "Or am I going to ruin Christmas with this?", he said - at short notice.

Voigt drew his extra joker at this point. He was allowed to ask Jauch for his opinion. However, the presenter didn't have a clue. He tended to favor the playing cards, suspecting a kind of shell game behind the question. He strongly recommended "really letting things rest". "I would never, never, never dare," Jauch warned the father of two. "The Cartier is feasible at 125,000 euros," he reassured Voigt, whose wife has been dreaming of a watch from the brand for decades. But there was that 25 percent feeling that left the Deutsche Bahn employee with no peace of mind.

Huge win on Jauch

Some "dangerous half-knowledge" was haunting the contestant in the last edition of "Who wants to be a millionaire?". He couldn't explain it, but made short work of it. "It will definitely be unique for me what happens now. I'll try A." The audience murmured, the control room logged in, the mother-in-law disappeared behind her hands. Jauch looked serious: "I don't make any big statements. I'll just say the right letter" - and went on to the commercial break.

"Amazing," Jauch could only conclude afterwards, when Voigt had actually answered the question correctly for half a million. "I love you, you're the best. I'm the happiest mother-in-law in 20 years. Super!" cheered his companion. The contestant's hunch was no coincidence. His son juggles with diabolos. Perhaps he came across object manipulation in passing on the Internet at some point, said Voigt.

"Object manipulation is the name given to games of skill in which one or more people physically interact with one or more objects," Jauch repeated the explanation from his monitor. He was all the more impressed by the candidate's correct answer: "I can barely read it out." Then came the million-dollar question.

Jauch wanted to know which of these bodies of water is only a good 50 meters deep on average: Müritz, Lake Constance, Steinhuder Meer or the Baltic Sea. "How do you like the question?" he wanted to know. "Well, not so good," Voigt ended his Christmas gambler's special with 500,000 euros. He then nonchalantly gave the correct answer: Baltic Sea. The railroad employee was only mildly interested to hear that this was correct.

Jauch, on the other hand, was a little off his game and knocked over the decoration, including the snowy owl, as he said goodbye. "Take this with you," said the RTL host and pressed the papier-mâché animal into the hands of the evening's winner.

"They're already shaking at RTL"

"A dangerous contestant, he was good," Jauch praised Cedric Polzin from Magdeburg in his final conclusion. The 22-year-old appeared with his girlfriend in a wonderful Christmas sweater couple look. He drew his first joker in the 4000-euro question. But then the project employee at the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Archaeology had to manage without any help. "They're already shaking at RTL. They open the vaults halfway," said Jauch after the 32,000 euro question.

But then the remaining three regular jokers were used to win the 64,000 euros. The 22-year-old had no idea what percentage of mothers of children under the age of three were working in Germany in 2022. In the end, the situation seemed to be pretty muddled. The audience voted 48% for "C: just under 40%", 41% voted for "over 55%".

But Polzin also suddenly confused the Christmas special with the punter special. "We'll now take C. Mr. Jauch, we'll now take C," he dared to plummet to 500 euros. "You want it, you get it," Jauch replied, but shortly afterwards Polzin clenched his fist in victory. He is now financially one step closer to his dream of a mausoleum.

"Christmas couldn't have turned out better for you," commented Jauch at the beginning of the show on the prize of 64,000 euros for special needs teacher Hannah Reinmoser from Freising. Steffen Schumann from Oldenburg then shook up the presenter's view of the world. The board member of the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag was the only one to answer the selection question on the lyrics of "Silent Night, Holy Night". Jauch was outraged.

"The Left is the only one here who knows the words to the Christmas carol, I can't believe it! That's what Germany has come to, ladies and gentlemen," the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" host said. However, the 26-year-old contestant quickly used all his jokers and went home satisfied with 32,000 euros. And then Voigt and his mother-in-law arrived.

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" returns on January 1, 2024 with a "3 Million Euro Week" and five new episodes. "Until then, happy holidays and have a good New Year," said Jauch.

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Despite the excitement surrounding the artificial snow in the studio, the railroad engineer's performance on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" was the real Christmas surprise. With Günther Jauch as the host, RTL’s TV show saw contestant Jens-Peter Voigt cause a stir, thanks to his decision to gamble 500,000 euros on an object manipulation-related question. Voigt's mother-in-law had predicted his appearance on the show 20 years prior, and she was in the audience to witness her prediction come true.

Source: www.ntv.de