Fans have accused a celeb contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire of foul play after using their 'phone a friend' lifeline on a quiz master.
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Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is a long-standing game show show where contestants answer questions to win cash prizes. Players also get three 'lifelines' to help if they are stuck: ask the audience, phone a friend, or 50/50, which cuts the answers from four possibilities down to two. The celebrity version, aired on Sunday, December 29th, is functionally the same. The big difference is the money is being raised for charity instead.
Nina Wadia, an actress from EastEnders (A UK Soap), had an ace up her sleeve when she got stuck on a question. Instead of calling a typical friend, she phoned Paul Sinha, a Chaser from the ITV show The Chase.
The Chase is another gameshow where contestants answer questions to win a cash prize. However, they must beat a 'Chaser' to do it, and these masterminds rarely get a question wrong. Even the host, Jeremy Clarkson, was taken aback by Wadia's request. "From The Chase? Let me get this straight: you're actually contemplating: Should I ask the audience, or should I ask someone from The Chase?"
Sinha promptly identified the answer with absolute certainty in true Chaser fashion, securing the prize. The question was: Which prison was demolished in 1987 after the death of its last inmate, Rudolf Hess? Colditz, Spandau, Robben Island, or Devil's Island.
For all of you quiz aficionados, the answer is Spandau. Wadia eventually went on to win £32,000 (roughly $42,000) for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Fans Proclaim The Celeb Lifeline Was Cheating
The studio audience applauded when Singha effortlessly identified the correct answer. However, some fans were unhappy and vented on X with the tag #WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire. @RyanTheSoapKing wrote, "Phoning a chaser shouldn't be allowed."@josh_earl3 typed, "You can't ring Paul Sinha; that's cheating."
Another user, @RACNOAPOLOGIES, suggests, "Let's just have a Phone the Chaser lifeline from now on." Still, it doesn't seem as though anyone is too upset about it. Ultimately, the money goes to a good cause.
Funnily enough, this isn't the first time a contestant has summoned a Chaser on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? A comedian, Johnny Vegas, did the same in 2020.
