Has the popular Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? become too easy since its format changed?
The earliest versions of the game show featured non-celebrity contestants trying to advance up the game board and potentially leave as a million-dollar winner.
With the version that recently returned to ABC, pairs of celebrity contestants are trying to win their way to the million dollars, and any winnings they leave with go to charities they play for.
A recent episode featured actress Sophia Bush and comedian Alex Edelman as one pair and comedian Jeff Ross and Jimmy Kimmel’s Cousin Sal as the other.
During the episode, some fans called out the show based on what they felt were “depressingly easy” questions at the higher levels of the game.
That included a $250,000, which many viewers may or may not have known the answer for.
Sophia Bush and Alex Edelman cruise to $250,000 on Millionaire
On Millionaire, Sophia and Alex moved up the board past the first several questions with ease, as other contestants probably would.
However, it also helped that a few questions were related to movies or television, with which they both had expertise.
They ran into trouble with the $8,000 question, but they talked through the possible answers. After talking it out, they made an educated guess.
“I don’t want to be wrong, but let’s lock it in,” Sophia said, without using any lifelines.
The guess paid off, and they continued to move along on the game board.
Sophia and Alex used two Lifelines to help with the $125,000 question. After they used the Ask the Host, they used a 50/50. It gave them what Kimmel also answered, which was the correct answer.
The $250,000 question was one that both Sophia and Alex seemed to instantly know the answer to, although it involved some additional discussion.
“Ranked No. 2 on a Rolling Stone list of Best Songs by Fake Bands, Scotty Doesn’t Know is lip-synched by Matt Damon in what raunchy teen comedy?” Kimmel read to them for the question.
The potential answers were Euro Trip, Hot Tub Time Machine, American Pie 2, or Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj.
Alex immediately said Euro Trip, but they had a funny back-and-forth before settling on it.
“It’s Euro Trip,” he said, with Sophia replying, “I think you’re right.”
“I think it’s Euro Trip,” he said again, and Sophia replied, “I think you’re right.”
“I think he’s right,” she told Kimmel, bringing laughs.
They locked in Euro Trip as their final answer, with Kimmel joking he wasn’t “familiar with this actor.”
Viewers called out Millionaire for ‘easy’ questions
However, their answer was correct, as the duo won $250,000 with that. While they used their final two lifelines at the $500,000 question, they couldn’t risk losing and chose to stop.
The Millionaire Instagram page revealed they won $250,000 for their charity, GLSEN Rainbow Library.
On social media, viewers called out Millionaire in its return to ABC, featuring celebrities as contestants.
One individual said, “Scott Doesn’t Know being the focus of a $250,000 question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire this week was something I didn’t have on my bingo card lol.”
“I can’t believe we live in a world where the song ‘Scotty Doesn’t Know’ from Eurotrip was the basis of a $250,000(!) on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. I guess it would be difficult if you haven’t seen it, but if you have it’s literally the most memorable part of the movie,” one commenter tweeted.
“I get it… but lord are the questions on Celebrity Millionaire depressingly easy,” another Twitter user said.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire returned to ABC’s lineup several weeks ago, along with the popular Press Your Luck and newcomer Lucky 13.
As mentioned, Millionaire introduced celebrity pairs as their contestants for the 2024 episodes, with all money won going to their preferred charities.
Other celebrities who participated in Millionaire since its format change included Rosie O’Donnell, John Stamos, and Kenan Thompson.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.