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$750,000? No thanks, says Million Dollar Minute champ.

Andrew Skarbek gambles it all, for a shot at the biggest cash prize in Australian TV history.

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A quiz show champion has turned down a whopping $750,000 cash prize in his quest for the top prize of $1,000,000 on Million Dollar Minute.

Melburnian Andrew Skarbek, 47, will play on for $1,000,000.

Added to his current safe money of $16,000, a $1,016,000 payday will be the the biggest cash prize in Australian television history: pipping previous million dollar prizes on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Big Brother and The Big Adventure.

Declining the $766,000 yesterday was a gamble as bold as they come in quiz shows.

“$766,000 would have set us up for life but I knew if I had taken it, I would never have felt
complete…I believe this is happening for a reason and I have to see how far I can go,” he said.

Host Simon Reeve added, “This is about as tense as it can get and I cannot begin to imagine what Andrew is feeling right now with so much life-changing money at stake.”

If he fails to defeat two new opponents in the elimination battle on Monday, he will leave the show
with the ‘safety net’ jackpot of $300,000 plus $16,000 safe money.

All eyes on the game Monday March 23 at 5.30pm on Seven.

15 Responses

  1. This should be taken off the air. The whole show is a joke and fraud.

    I say Fraud. Simple look at the title of the Show, Million Dollar Minute.

    Pffft More than 1 minute to get the million Dollars.

  2. Pertinax, you are mistaken, he has had at least 2 nights where he has won by only 1 question….I think he’s vulnerable if someone can put pressure on him.

  3. If he’s only a 1/3 chance of losing he will come out ahead on average. He is the fastest and best at the double points round, and nobody has come close to beating him so far. He has some blind spots in the jackpots questions so it could take him a few nights, which increases the risk.

    I guess it depends on your situation. I’d take the $766k, but if he wants to get a house in Melbourne near jobs and services, then he may need at least $1016k.

    1. Isn’t it scary these days when most gameshow major prizes wouldn’t even potentially get you anything more than a house paid off.

      Remember the days of Sale when the amounts were in the 300k and above, someone could win back then and literally be set for life! You’d be hard pressed these days other than the million, there’s no show that would pay off your avg mortgage, even Deal or No Deals $200k wouldn’t pay off mine

  4. The contestants are pretty strongly tested before they appear on camera on these types of shows…probing questions to find what they know a lot about … and what they don’t.
    So if you know someone’s Archilles Heel, then I guess you might see they are stumped with a tough question right at the post…or not, considering how much Seven wants to try and pump up their News at 6…
    Anyone seen “Quiz Show ” by the way ?

  5. Given that both the millioner winners were leaked to the press after filming and before airing, surely if Andrew wins the big one, we would already know.

  6. I notice Nein has also been advertising someone going for the million on Monday. What’s the chances of both shows doing it on the same day? I don’t believe that Nein has a million dollars to give away so it isn’t going to happen.

    1. I hope after tomorrow’s episode of Million Dollar Minute, the show consistently beats Hot Seat. Because I want Millionaire Hot Seat to be on at night instead of the stupid Block and we’ll get another game show at 5.30.

  7. Good luck to him. The chance to potentially win $1m doesn’t come around everyday so why not do it? I know i would even if it meant i’d only walk away with $300,000.

  8. Nice if you can afford to gamble with that amount of money. I wish him all the best, he seems like a really nice guy! Amazing to have so much knowledge about so many different subjects!

  9. It’s fairly obvious he will win the million dollars on Monday. Two weeks ago Seven were running ads for MDM saying that someone “would soon be going all the way”.

  10. I was really surprised that he decided to come back for the million, considering he has had so many failed attempts to get this far. If it was me, I wouldn’t risk $450,000 to gain $250,000. Hope he wins it though.

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