YMMV / 500 Questions

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• Funny Moments: During a battle asking for, besides brackets, symbols that are on the top row of a computer keyboard, one contestant guessed "The squiggly thing above the 2" (presumably @). It wasn't accepted.
• Growing the Beard: Season 2, due to the replacement of Richard Quest with Dan Harris, cutting out most of the padding, the addition of the Lightning Round, and changing the number of questions in each round from 50 to 30. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to get the show renewed for a third season.
• More Popular Replacement: Dan Harris was seen as a significant improvement over Richard Quest who had a loud, grating voice, relied heavily on catchphrases and only seemed interested in the game if a contestant got a question wrong.
• Padding: During the first season, a round of 50 questions never got completed in the allotted hour due to the rules of everything constantly being explained along with the contestants and Quest dragging down gameplay. At best, 40 could be done, compared to at the very worst 55 on Jeopardy! (a half-hour show) or double that on The Chase (which also runs a full hour). At the end of Season 1, only 371 questions were asked, meaning the show couldn't even fulfill its own title. Season 2 cut down on the padding but still couldn't quite get to the 500 mark, with 467 questions being asked.
• Retroactive Recognition: James Holzhauer appeared as a challenger in an episode, but he never made it into the game. In 2019, he would proceed to run the tables on Jeopardy!, with a 32-game winning streak and over $2.4 million in total winnings. One thing is for certain: he definitely had to answer way more than 500 questions to reach that goal, and he would return to ABC for the show's primetime The Greatest of All Time event.
  • Future Master Minds regulars Jonathan Corbblah, Monica Thieu, Ryan Chaffee, Muffy Marracco, and Raj Dhuwalia all appeared on 500 Questions. Monica and Ryan were the only ones who had any success. Monica won $28,000, while Ryan won $36,000.

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