"I wonder who would give such a poo..." Günther Jauch gets abusive - and marvels at the contestant
Carlotta Henggeler
21.1.2025

Günther Jauch thinks little of the activities of influencers, as became clear on Monday. The "WWM" host was also amazed several times by a female candidate in the guessing chair.
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- Günther Jauch was irritated by contestant Maja Nickles on "Who wants to be a millionaire?", who entertained the audience with curious statements and anecdotes.
- The Master's student and YouTuber provided some bizarre moments, including her statements about her home and her choice of telephone joker.
- Maja Nickles won 16,000 euros before she dropped out, and Jauch commented on her performance as "enlightening and refreshing".
Things got off to a bumpy start: "It's not a bear, it's a cat!" Maja Nickles objected when Günther Jauch mistook her lucky charm for a teddy bear. Also difficult to recognize: Günther Jauch as a small self-made figure with the show's anniversary logo.
The Master's student had applied for "Who wants to be a millionaire?" with the mini Jauch. Günther Jauch gladly accepted the gift, even though he was visibly doubtful about the accuracy of his features.
The young lady from Frankenthal in Rhineland-Palatinate is not only a Master's student in social work, but also runs several YouTube channels, most notably "Majas Insel". There she would chat, paint and do handicrafts.
Jauch smugly guessed that she probably had "121 followers". The candidate seemed irritated and explained that YouTube was talking about subscribers and that there were more (before the broadcast there were a good 6,000).
"I always wonder who would make such a shit...", Günther Jauch thought aloud to the amusement of the audience. The contestant protested and Jauch tried to make a flimsy excuse: "I was going to say who watches that." Maja Nickles' defense: "My dad, for example."
Telephone joker Peter "is a sad story"
No less curious was the contestant's "talent" of folding her ears in - at least for a few seconds. Worth 4000 euros: "Rather unsuitable for eating raw: Which fruits contain a poison that only loses its effect when heated?" Elderberries, blackberries, blueberries, blackcurrants? "Aren't elderberries the ones you put in sauerkraut? They're really disgusting when you bite into them," mused the candidate. She probably meant juniper, the presenter assumed. After the 50:50 joker, Maja Nickles chose the elderberries.
The 8000 hurdle: "Who was once in a relationship with Jenny Elvers for four years and temporarily moved from Berlin to her nursery in the Lüneburg Heath?" Farin Urlaub, Til Schweiger, Jan Ulrich, Kai Pflaume? Maja Nickles neither knew Jenny Elvers nor the answer. She introduced her telephone jokers: "a friend, my dad and Peter, but that's a sad story".
Günther Jauch naturally wanted to know more and found out: "It's something like a failed love affair, but he's still here because he's still here." After this detailed and vague report, Maja Nickles explained to the astonished presenter: "But I'm not using a telephone joker." The audience giggled.
Günther Jauch struggles to keep his composure: "We've never had anyone like you, I have to say"
The audience joker helped instead: Farin Urlaub is correct. "I'm glad they knew Kai Pflaume, otherwise he would have had a hard time," joked Günther Jauch. He's a "weather presenter, isn't he?" Maja Nickles put her foot in her mouth. "Yes, he always makes good weather," Jauch joked to the amusement of the studio audience. It didn't get any better when Jauch explained that Farin Urlaub is the singer of the band Die Ärzte. "I think I got him mixed up with Farid Bang," confessed Maja Nickles. No matter, it turned out well again.
The next curious anecdote: the brother who had traveled with her and the candidate live together "in the house where all the remaining people have died". Günther Jauch was amazed: "That means they live in a house where the people have died one after the other and only they are still there? That's a new form of eviction, I've never seen it before." The audience laughed. Then the presenter turned macabre: "And who is the next one of them?" Jauch asked: "Is it a haunted house?" The contestant admitted: "Sometimes it feels like it is, but mostly it's been the cats when you hear strange rustling." The presenter's conclusion: "I warn against Frankenthal, it's close to Frankenstein."
The 16,000-euro question: "What shape do the pieces of dough have before they are folded into the typical fortune cookie in the traditional way?" Crescent-shaped, circular, almond-shaped, square? While the contestant looked around the audience for an additional joker, she kept saying "ahem" until Günther Jauch announced: "We've never had anyone like you before, I have to say. God's big zoo often comes by here, but today I have to say: ohmmm ..." A lady from the audience knew: "circular" was the word.
"You're always balancing on the 500 abyss," Günther Jauch stated. Worth 32,000 euros: "Which country does not have an official national holiday?" Germany, the United Kingdom, France or the USA? The first hurdle: Maja Nickles didn't know what a national holiday was. Her father was asked to help as a telephone joker.
When Jauch introduced himself on the phone, the candidate's dad replied: "Nonsense, really?" Jauch assured him of his authenticity. "That means you didn't trust your daughter to go into the middle?" The father admitted: "Not really." After this statement, which was hardly suitable as a motivational speech, he didn't know the answer either.
VW employee falls to
500 euros with two unused jokers
The candidate capitulated and thought aloud about whether she should go to the hairdresser with the 16,000 euros she had won. The correct answer, by the way, would have been "United Kingdom". Jauch's parting words: "What we have experienced here with you has been enlightening and refreshing."
Overhang candidate Kristina Gress from Lauda-Königshofen in Baden-Württemberg only paid a brief return visit to the show: she gave up on the first question for 16,000 euros and left as she had come: with 8,000 euros.
Torsten Ernst, who works at VW Saxony as a plant operator in the body shop, fell low: he guessed the wrong answer at the 16,000 euro mark and ended up with 500 euros. Particularly bitter: he left with two unused jokers.
Madlen Bähr from Wittingen in Lower Saxony won 32,000 euros. Marion Tönjes from Dortmund can play for 16,000 euros in the next show. However, this will still take a while, as Jauch is taking a four-week break due to the RTL jungle camp ("Ich bin ein Star - Holt mich hier raus", from January 24, two and a half weeks daily from 8.15 pm).