Awesome / Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

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In General...

• Pretty much anytime someone wins the top prize.
• The lighting effects of both the original and Super Millionaire formats:
  • The big money questions cause the room to enter a very dark state with a blue haze on the floor, meant to simulate the feeling of being alone.
  • After the player answers the $500,000 question correctly, the lighting in between questions enters a different phase. Instead of bright lights and colors, the stage has a very faint purple from the arches to the center and a faint white on the stairs. Compare the differences here.
  • Reaching the $100,000 mark on Super Millionaire. Instead of going directly to the next question, the room is filled with white lights.
  Regis: From now on, this is all uncharted territory. No one has ever been here before... It's time to enter the next dimension of this game.
• On the occasional playing while the lifeline was available, the contestant's Phone-A-Friend would say the correct answer immediately after hearing the question. Without even hearing any of the choices. And sometimes even before the contestant even finished the question. An example from a UK celebrity edition, two more from the US.
  • Another US example. Mother knows best!
• When a contestant uses Ask The Audience on a later question...and the majority of the audience is correct. The general rule is that you should use Ask The Audience first because they will pretty much always guess if you use it on a later question...but sometimes the contestant gets lucky, and this happens.

US Version (Regis Philbin)

• John Carpenter (no, not that one) went through all 15 questions without requiring a lifeline, marking his place as the first person to win the top prize in the world. He did use a lifeline (Phone-A-Friend) at the very end to call his father, but only to tell him he was going to win the Million because he knew the answer, which he gave, "final answer" and all, with his father on the line to hear it.
  • And then, when the show brought back its biggest winners to play for charity, won an additional $250,000 - the best of the three people who had won the million to that point.
• Joe Trela, who became the third person to win the million dollars, did so while playing the last five questions without any Lifelines.
• Phil Gibbons faced what many consider to be the hardest stack of questions on the primetime show and ran out of lifelines at the $8,000 question...and then came back to win $500,000.
• Kevin Olmstead, who won the biggest top prize in US Millionaire history, with no lifelines on the final question: $2,180,000. Also notable because he was the first grand prize winner in roughly nine months, ending a long drought.
  • The fact that he instantly knew the answers to the last 2 questions is also worth mentioning. Also, his reaction when he realizes that he knows the answer to the final question:
  Kevin: (Breathing heavily/excitedly) I know this! It was the Sikorsky Helicopter! So I'm going to make Sikorksy... my final answer!
  Regis: JUST WON $2,180,000!
• David Goodman who, before winning the million, answered the first 14 questions without using a single lifeline.
• Tim Shields and Ed Toutant could be considered the comeback kings of this game. Both contestants lost on their $16,000 questions on their initial appearances but were invited back due to faults discovered with their losing questions. Both of them went on to see the million-dollar question. Tim walked away with $500,000 after being unable to identify the last word of the Old Testament, but Ed won $1.86 million after knowing that WW2 soldiers used the first commercial aerosol cans to hold insecticide.
  Ed: C, Insecticide is my final answer.
  Beat
  Regis: GOT IT!
  [Audience erupts into thunderous applause]
• Not a lot of the audience (or his fellow Celebrity Edition contestants) expected Norm Macdonald to be as good as he was, so imagine their surprise when he gets all the way to $500,000. And would have WON THE MILLION if Regis had just stayed out of the way.
• Robert "Bob-O" Essig was the only Super Millionaire contestant to win seven figures, and after he answered his $1,000,000 question correctly, the audience erupted in chants of "Bob-O! Bob-O!" that continued until after the following commercial break.
• One of the more memorable early contestants was Doug Van Gundy, who was the first contestant to make it all the way to the $500,000 question. One of his ecstatic reactions, when he wins the $250,000 question, was so memorable it was featured in the intro sequence many times.
• Justin Ray Castillo's run. He used a lifeline on only the $200 question, so it was looking likely he wasn't going to make it very far. Much to everyone's surprise, he bounced back when he returned the following night and made it all the way to the million dollar question, though he bowed out and took the $500,000 instead of going for it. Regardless, it was quite a comeback.

US Version (Meredith Vieira)

• May 2005: Jay Popover used Phone-a-Friend to call his 11-year-old son for the correct response to "In math, what is the term for two angles that add up to 90 degrees?" His son barely squeezed in "I think it's complementary" before the 30 seconds were up. Jay decided to go with it... and was correct.
  Meredith: Do you know how happy you made your little boy?
  Jay: YES!
• Kevin Smith (yet again, not that one) became the very first contestant on the Syndicated version of Millionaire to win the top prize. He spent 45 years to prepare for his lucky day. Also, Meredith allowed Kevin to make a call to his mother and tell her that he won the top prize.
  • The fact that he completely guessed (and even went against his Phone-A-Friend) on the $500,000 question is also worth mentioning.
  Meredith: I'm so happy you trusted your gut!
• Nancy Christy, who became the first (and so far, the only) woman in the US to win the Million. To make it even more amazing, she went through the last 6 questions without any lifelines!
  • And just like Kevin Smith, she also took a wild guess on the $500,000 question.
  Nancy: Let's take a shot and say B: Sydney Opera House...final answer.
  Meredith: Oh, Nancy... oh, gosh... you're one away from a million dollars!
• Armand Kachigian reached his $1,000,000 question right after Nancy Christy's victory, thus allowing to see TWO final questions in a row. This achievement was repeated only in the 2020 revival of the US version - and nowhere else in the world - so far.
• Lyn Payne reached the $1,000,000 question: "Khrushchev's famous 1960 "shoe-banging" outburst at the U.N. was in response to a delegate from what nation?" A. Australia, B. The Netherlands, C. The Philippines, D. Turkey. She used her final lifeline, Ask the Audience, where 48% picked D, 29% picked B, 15% picked C and 8% picked A. She marinated on answering D until she concluded that the audience poll was too close to call. She walked with $500,000... and then discovered that the majority was wrong. The correct answer is The Philippines.

US Version (Cedric the Entertainer)

• On Celebrity Millionaire, Charles "Chip" Esten became the only person in the Shuffle Format to win and walk away with $500,000. On his second episode, he got a question regarding the license plate on the famous Abbey Road, which was the perfect question for a Beatles fan. Considering that he won over $34,000 on Sale of the Century in 1988, he's Still Got It.

US Version (Chris Harrison)

• This contestant was going for $250,000 with his Ask the Audience lifeline. The question was "While originally there was just Pep-O-Mint, over the years Life Savers have been available in all but which of the following flavors?" A. Vanill-O-Nut B. Vi-O-Let C. Choc-O-Mint D. Cin-O-Mon. He chose to Ask the Audience, resulting in 84% of them picking "B", with 2% picking "A", 13% picking "C", and 1% picking "D". The contestant had a gut instinct that it was "B".
  • You'd Expect: For the contestant to trust the audience and pick "B" since that was his gut instinct.
  • Instead: He ignores the audience and walks away with $100,000.
  • However, It Turns Out: The 84% that said "B"... were wrong!!!

US Version (Jimmy Kimmel)

• Two celebrity contestants - Lauren Lapkus and Anderson Cooper - got to their $1,000,000 questions one after another, repeating the aforementioned record set by Nancy Christy and Armand Kachigian.
• David Chang became the first celebrity contestant on the American version to get the $1,000,000 question right. On top of this, he knew the answer to several questions because of his own life experiences, having traveled around the world so much.
  Jimmy: Boy, you're no Norm McDonald... and I'm no Regis, we all know that. God, I wish I was. But David Chang... your metallic testicles... (David laughs) just won you a Million dollars for your charity.

UK Version (Chris Tarrant)

• 6 September 1998: Ross Jackson uses all lifelines by the £2,000 question, but, answered the next five questions correctly without them and won £64,000.
• 9 January 1999: Martin Skillings, who became the first person ever in TV quiz show history to win £125,000, did so without even using any lifelines! To make this even more amazing, the next contestant after Martin was Ian Horswell, who won ANOTHER £125,000!
• 13-14 November 1999: Lance Jones uses all lifelines at the £2,000 question, but, answered the next six questions correctly without them and won £64,000.
• 17-19 January 2000: Only once before had someone winning £250,000 on 4th September 1999. Three contestants in a row won at least £250,000. First, David Neale, who first used at lifeline at the £16,000 question, but reached £250,000 with 2 lifelines left, but, used them both and still walked away with £250,000 and became the second person to do so. Unfortunately, he would’ve won £500,000, if he had gone with his guess. Next, it was Peter Lee, who first used a lifeline at the £4,000 question, but, reached £125,000 with 2 lifelines left. He used both lifelines and went with the answer that Derik and Peter were leaning towards and won ANOTHER £250,000!!! You may have thought he was going to walk away with £250,000 because he is now out of lifelines, but, he knew the answer to the question worth £500,000, and risks it, and became the first person to win £500,000!!! He now decides to walk away with £500,000 because the other questions he was about 90-95% sure, but, not the £1,000,000 question. Finally, Margaret Whittaker, reached £32,000 with all 3 lifelines left, she used Ask the Audience on the £64,000 question, 50:50 on £125,000, and Phone a Friend on £250,000, and thanks to her friend Ronda, Margaret just won £250,000! She was delighted to take £250,000 and run and became the first woman to win £250,000 after only one woman (Sylvia Nixon in the Christmas Special) won £125,000. Two records in a row had been broken.
• 4 November 2000: contestant was going for £64,000 with all three lifelines intact. His question was, "What was the name of Woody Allen's 1998 film featuring Leonardo DiCaprio" A. Everybody Says I Love You, B. Deconstructing Henry, C. Celebrity, D. Sweet and Lowdown. He started by using his Phone-A-Friend, who said "B", then used 50:50, eliminating A and D.
  • You'd Expect: For the contestant to trust his friend's confirmation and answer B since his answer was still there.
  • Instead: He decides to ask the audience. 73% said B, the other 27% said C.
  • You'd Then Expect: For the contestant to finally choose "B" since all three of his lifelines steered toward that answer.
  • Instead: He was convinced that the answer would be C and goes with that.
  • However, It Turns Out: The friend and 73% that said "B"...were wrong!
• 26 February 2002: Roger Walker used all lifelines by the £16,000 question, but answered the next six questions correctly without them and won £500,000!
• 29 March 2003: Isabel & James Morgan on the Mother's Day Special, use all lifelines by the £4,000 question, but, answered the next six questions correctly without them and £250,000. They would’ve been seven questions and would’ve won £500,000 if they had with James's guess. But, it was just a guess, so they wouldn’t want to risk losing £218,000.
• 24 April 2004: Pat Gibson who became the fourth person to win £1,000,000, became the only U.K. to keep two lifelines for the £1,000,000 question. He even knew the answer to the £1,000,000 question, even though he used the two remaining lifelines. He was calm throughout the game, and brave (especially at the £32,000 question). He was the next contestant after Bill Copland who went home with nothing.
• 16 & 23 September 2006: Ingram Wilcox who became the fifth and last person to win £1,000,000, went through the last five questions without any lifelines! That’s because the questions started off to be harder and later they became easy for Ingram.
• 11 July 2009: Chris Mapp uses all lifelines by the £5,000 question, but, answered the next six questions correctly without them and won £150,000!

UK Version (Jeremy Clarkson)

• On 12 May 2020, wheelchair-bound Andrew Townsley was able to win £500,000... and could've won the Million if he decided to go for his answer.
• 11 September 2020: Donald Fear becomes the very first person in Clarkson's time to win the Million. What's even more impressive is that the ONLY lifeline he used in the whole run was the 50:50 on the tenth question!
  • What makes it even more awesome is that Donald was able to surpass his brother Davyth - who also made it to the final question a year earlier, but decided to walk away, and would have been wrong if he had gone for it.

Japanese Version

• Baseball player Tsuyoshi Shinjo was once on a celebrity edition and prepared for the show by writing the letters A through D on four sides of a pencil. On the final question for ¥10,000,000, he rolled the pencil on his palm and it turned up C. He mulled it over, then rolled the pencil on the floor — and it turned up C again. He went for it, locking in C, and won.
• Winning this version of Super Millionaire. What makes this harder than other formats is that while the number of questions drops to 10, there are no safe havens, and the last two questions, while being 50:50, disallow walking away. Only one person has won on Super.

Australian Version

• 12 August 2002: On the Battle of the Game Show Hosts, Tony Barber proves why he is the King of Quiz by winning $250,000 ($125K apiece) for his charity and home viewer after using all of his lifelines by the $32,000 question.
• 28 April 2003: Molly Meldrum wins $500,000 ($250K apiece) for his charity and home viewer after phoning Red Symons (who, ironically, missed his $500K question when he appeared on the very first Celebrity Millionaire in 2000).
• 17 October 2005: The first million dollar winner.
• 19 November 2007: Erin Bride used all three lifelines in her $300 question, but reached all the way up to $32,000.
• 20 May 2014: Hot Seat may be one of the more controversial versions of Millionaire out there, but you have to be impressed with Alex Pellis' performance. After passing on the second question, he re-enters at the eighth question^note (Questions 1-4 and 6-9 are marked with money values, but due to the nature of the format, are worth nothing. Only question 5, and questions 10-15 are worth actual money.), and answers six questions correctly in a row WITH COMPLETELY NO IDEA ON ANY OF THE QUESTIONS to win $100,000.
• 14 September 2015: The previously mentioned "lucky six" was surpassed by Erin Lamkin, who came in on the sixth question and went on to completely guess EIGHT questions in a row correctly for $250,000.
• The first million dollar winner of the Hot Seat variant. And the second.

German Version

• November 24, 2010: Ralf Schnoor reached the €1,000,000 question with his Phone-A-Friend remaining. His face lit up upon seeing the final question before the answers were revealed. He then proceeded to use his Phone-A-Friend to pull a John Carpenter, chatting casually with his friend before asking to confirm his initial instinct on the question. Sure enough, he was right and won the million euros.

Russian Version

• June 10th, 2000: Sergey Strokin became the one (and only) contestant to reach the final question on the Oh, Lucky Man! version of the show. He did it without the lifelines on 13th and 14th questions, and he walked away with ₽500,000.
• March 12th, 2001: Igor Sazeev from St. Petersburg became the very first Russian contestant ever to win the Million. What makes it so awesome is that he remained confident throughout the whole game (even in the way that matches John Carpenter's run), though he still used all of his lifelines.
  • The episode with him was the very first Russian episode of WWTBAM ever shot (not counting O, Lucky Man!) when Maxim Galkin came to host it. In a sense, this could easily go in a Moment of Awesome territory; but, Sazeev's run was aired as 7th episode of the Russian WWTBAM version.
• January 18th, 2003: Irina and Yuri Chudinovskih became the very first couple to win the top prize in the entire world. Although, there was only one common couple of people before who would only get to see the final question: Rob and Mary Beth McNally from the US (on May 17th, 2001).
• February 19th, 2006: Svetlana Yaroslavtzeva was lucky enough to become the first single woman to win ₽3,000,000. She was overly excited to become a contestant and made a few funny things during the game. As she personally said, the maximum amount of money she ever held was $500 which she spent on a dishwasher. Svetlana also accomplished the rare feat of having 2 lifelines available for the final question.

Indian Versions (Multilingual)

• 15 & 19 February 2007: Prashant P. Mannur used all three lifelines (excluding the flip) in his ₹3,000 question, but reached all the way up to ₹6,40,000.

Nigerian Version

• Aroma Ufodike's 10-million-naira win. Volume alert.
  Frank Edoho: I'm sorry, but... economics was actually... the right answer— NO!!! (the whole studio cheers wildly)

Portuguese Version

• December 29, 2003: António Franco, who won the top prize of €250,000, went through the last six questions without any lifelines!

Danish Version

• October 22, 2012: Charlotte Bircow and Lasse Rimmer who, before winning 1,000,000kr., answered the first 14 questions without using a single lifeline.
• Anders and Peter Lund Madsens made history on October 28, 2013, when they became the first people in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire history to win the top prize twice.

Swedish Version

• April 11, 2014: Birgitta Hedström who, before winning 1,000,000kr, answered the first 14 questions without using a single lifeline.

Italian Version

• January 27, 2011: Michela De Paoli who, before winning €1,000,000, answered the first 14 questions without using a single lifeline.

Hong Kongese Version

• September 24, 2001: The Zhou Brothers ran out of lifelines by the $10,000 question, but, answered the next eight questions correctly without them and won $500,000!!!

Filipino Version

• January 9, 2010: Celebrity Sharon Cuneta returns to Millionaire after 8 years to try her hand at the top prize, and wins, becoming the first and only Filipina Millionaire! On her first run, she stopped at ₱1,000,000 and took the money. Like David Chang above, she knew many answers to her questions because of her extensive travel and life experiences.
• September 18, 2011: Karl Jonathan Aguilar wins the top prize of ₱2,000,000. What makes it noteworthy is that Karl was given a question that's unusually atypical of any final question: a question whose answers differ by the last two words of the answers.