"Who wants to be a millionaire?" "I don't have that much time": slow contestant puts patience to the test

When it comes to gambling on "Who wants to be a millionaire?", it's not just the contestants who are sweating. It's also nerve-wracking for presenter Günther Jauch. This time he was not only upset about a particularly slow contestant, but also about the puzzle question editors.

"How mean are the question editors?" mused Günther Jauch during a question on the big punter special of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". Later that evening, he doubted their expertise. It was about a math problem. "A number is always divisible by 4 without remainder if the number formed from its last two digits ...?" Either A) is even, B) the sum of the digits is 4, C) contains a 0 or D) is divisible by 4 without remainder.

Candidate Maximilian Frank (30) from Munich had a puzzled look on his face. Knowledge of math? "In A-levels we went towards the earth's core" - so rather underground. He spontaneously ruled out solution D. "That sounds very strange." Jauch thought so too. He lent the perplexed candidate a pen and got him a piece of paper so that Frank could do the math in writing.

Jauch then went for a stroll around the studio and chatted with the candidate in waiting, Helga Endres. The elderly lady confessed that she wouldn't have been able to do anything with the question either, but that she was impatient with the candidate: "I'm looking forward to when he's finally finished." She hit the bull's eye with Jauch. "I'm right there with you." Endres added ironically: "I'm not the youngest anymore, I don't have that much time."

Jauch teases, candidate resigns: "It's so super embarrassing."

Because Maximilian Frank's nerves were on edge. His own and everyone else's. He lost his rhythm early on, and question four (for 500 euros) was already getting to him. "Anyone who got married in a town on the River Lahn with a population of around 75,000 has, so to speak, entered into what?" The correct punning answer: Marburger Bund. But the penny didn't drop for an agonizingly long time.

"I'm very much on the tube", and everyone recognized that. While the candidate became increasingly insecure, Jauch tried to help ironically. First he talked to the candidate's father, then he massaged his neck and temples. "You have a blockage. But I'm not sure if it's just a muscular one." Frank resigned: "It's so super embarrassing and it's not getting any better."

Agreed: Jauch didn't stop teasing the confused candidate. "These are the favorite moments for RTL: there's a chance he'll drop to 0. So there's no risk of it being expensive and time is running out for the other people waiting." Even when the penny - correctly - finally dropped for Frank, Jauch scolded him: "If you carry on like this, you'll be the first person I've dragged through five shows."

Frank continued to struggle, but made progress - slowly. In order to secure 16,000 euros, he used the audience joker - and thus gambled away the other three.

Candidate rakes in 32,000 euros

But what takes a long time also turned out well in the math question. The "strange" answer D was correct after all, much to Jauch's astonishment. "That's the stupidest answer I've ever ..." Yet it was the only logical answer (of the four possible ones) - as Frank had also discovered in the written solution.

Inspired by his success, Frank gambled boldly and quickly on the next question - and secured himself 64,000 euros. In the 125,000 euro question, he dropped out with a light heart. He had "never expected" to win 64,000 euros, even after the precarious 500-euro question. Frank was therefore only the second most successful gambler of the evening. Johannes Gross scooped 125,000 euros. Franca Spirgatis scooped 32,000 euros. Conway Plewka and Alander Schachtner, on the other hand, gambled away and had to go home with "only" 1000 euros.