Günther Jauch rarely makes such a faux pas. He wants to show off a poem - but the "Who wants to be a millionaire?" candidate and his wife reveal the right answer. Then the moderator asks: Please bribe me.
For a long moment, Günther Jauch didn't even know what happened to him. But the clever contestant on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" (WWM) noticed his mistake immediately. Sabine Weisel from Ravensburg immediately capitalized on this on Thursday evening and gloated a little over the moderator's faux pas. He just pulled a pout. But then Jauch had to admit: "I really shot myself in the knee."
It was supposed to be an educated middle-class moment for Jauch. The moderator actually wanted to show off a little on day four of the big "three million euro week" at WWM. He had asked the press spokeswoman for the city of Weingarten in Baden-Württemberg for 16,000 euros: What can be heard from afar in Eduard Mörike's spring poem "It's Him"? You could choose between soft piano music, a heavy drumbeat, a soft harp or a ten-minute guitar solo. Jauch insisted on reciting the poem.
"Spring lets its blue ribbon flutter again through the air; sweet, well-known scents forebodingly streaks across the land. Violets are already dreaming, will come soon..."
Of course, Jauch stopped at the crucial point. But by then the damage had already been done.
Because of the presentation, Weisel was able to immediately eliminate three possible answers. Jauch had confirmed her guess. "Ah, then it was the harp sound, because the rhyme fits. That's answer C, Mr. Jauch," suggested the press spokeswoman, who is also responsible for civic engagement and integration in her community. Jauch needed a moment under the applause of the studio audience to recognize his mistake. "From now on I will stop any - I repeat: any - support for your person here," he apparently pouted a little, but then admitted his mistake.
Weisel announced that he would send the winemaker a bottle of wine as a small thank you. Then Jauch was reconciled again. "I take that as a small suggestion to all candidates: please always bring something for me," he joked. "Then everything runs a little more smoothly here." Then Jauch was helpful again when, at some point, Weisel asked repeatedly stressed: "Can you describe the facial expression of my wife?" "I think she forgives you everything," Jauch described the wife's facial expressions. However, Weisel preferred to stop and made it into the final of the “three million euro week” on Friday with 32,000 euros. With one of the candidates, however, the crash curse struck again.
On Monday, three of the applicants for the record prize in "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" dropped to 500 euros. Sven Ilgner from Cologne did the same on the last day before the finals. The cultural manager and filmmaker from Cologne had already needed his first joker for the 1000 euro question and should have asked for help in the next round. Unfortunately, the 43-year-old was certain that the first genetically modified and over-the-counter food was anti-mold corn. In fact, however, Jauch was looking for the anti-slush tomato.
Jauch made no move to save the 43-year-old from falling - maybe because he really has enough candidates for the grand finale on Friday. On Thursday alone, five candidates qualified for more than 16,000 euros. The winners of the evening were Stefan Heberle from Görisfried and Philipp Schaefer from Düren, each with 64,000 euros. The chemist Heberle brought Jauch against himself early on. Because he ruined his two-year-old Teflon pan with his metal spatula, he now wants to buy a replacement. "What would the Haeberle family buy from a million euros? A frying pan! Don't you have any other problems?" asked Jauch, aghast.
When Heberle happily gambled round after round, the suffering of his wife in the audience also increased. "You can still call him sick," Jauch said to his wife with a view to the final. Archivist Schaefer then impressed the moderator with his knowledge of German motorway exits. For this reason, Jauch dug up the 500,000 euro question from an earlier program, where the longest and the second-longest autobahn in Germany intersect. "Würzburg," Schaefer replied - without thinking long and without the multiple-choice answers.
In addition, student Philipp Rubach from Düsseldorf and Janina Topp-Oesterle from Solms made it into the final with 16,000 euros each. There Jauch wants to tempt the candidates with "immoral offers" to jeopardize their profit for the prospect of three million euros. But whether the tax officer will get involved is more than questionable. "With two children, 16,000 euros is a hell of a lot of money these days," she said goodbye to Jauch. "Who are you telling," the moderator agreed.
