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$1,016,000 is Andrew’s own Million Dollar Minute

At last! Andrew Skarbek makes history by winning the biggest cash prize ever on Aussie TV.

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Million Dollar Minute champion Andrew Skarbek has made television history by winning the biggest cash prize ever given away on Australian television: $1,016,000.

Skarbek, 47 from Melbourne, won the $1,000,000 prize today after correctly answering 5 questions in the final stage of the Seven quiz. He had previously turned down $750,000 and $500,000 to take a shot at the top prize, but there were four failed attempts at the top prize before the glory.

He correctly answered the following 5 questions:

Robert Menzies first became prime minister as leader of which party? UAP
Which of these singers is the eldest? David Bowie
The Burke and Wills expedition left Melbourne in which year? 1860
Which of these teams was first to race in a Formula 1 Grand Prix? Tyrrell
Which cartoon character’s mother-in-law is Pearl Slaghoople? Fred Flintstone

Across 23 episodes, Skarbek defeated 46 contestants and answered 589 questions. He also rejected over $150,000 in cash temptations, opting to take extra points instead.

He is now the fifth ‘TV millionaire’ on Australian television. With $16,000 already in ‘safe money’ his additional $1,000,000 means he trumps previously million-dollar winners on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?, Big Brother and The Big Adventure.

The win is an even sweeter victory after he was left with $50,000 medical bills following his recent treatment for cancer.

Million Dollar Minute has saved us. I am in shock…I can’t believe this is happening right now,” he said.

He also plans to quit his job, buy a home and fly his 78 year old mother back to Poland for a family reunion.

“It will be business class all the way for the whole family,” he said.

Host Simon Reeve added, “His strength – apart from his prodigious general knowledge – was his ability to cope with the pressure. It takes enormous courage and Andrew has earned every cent of his million dollar win.”

With its first million dollar champ, the Seven devised format has now lived up to its title. More importantly for Seven, the show has enjoyed several wins over Nine’s Hot Seat and helped elevate Seven News to multiple wins over Nine News.

12 Responses

  1. No doubt, money better spent, for Seven creating “water cooler” conversations, beating Hot Seat, and awareness as a lead in for Seven News.
    As opposed to the $1m given away on the poor performing The Big Adventure (who remembers that?)

    Isn’t MKR with it’s powerhouse of viewers (and longevity), still a $250k prize?

  2. Whether it was panned out or not it was great to see someone win the million dollars, he seemed a well deserved recipient and seems such a nice person, good luck to him.

  3. Panned out the way is was meant to be they wanted him to win they would have rated all of their contestants so if they wanted him to have a hard time they could have done so

  4. Good luck to Andrew. But it was hardly an exciting 23 episodes. Quite dreary really. There was no real competition, as on most nights Andrew was miles ahead of his opponents. Couldn’t Channel 7 find any contestants to give him a decent run for his money, particularly in the past week when he was trying for the million?

  5. Why do Seven always have to spoil things in their promos. It ended up being the biggest anti-climax because you knew he was going to win the million after he got through to the MDM given it was promoted as his final game. It took away all the suspense of revealing whether he was right on those final five questions.

    1. Depends on how your health is after the cancer, how bad your job is, if he’s planning to take a lower paid job, how close you are to 55 if you have a lot of super.

      Seven wanted the ratings bump for the last ep in ratings and figured that the anticlimax would cause people to flick away. It rated 670k, which is 68k more than Thursday and it was a Friday.

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