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'Million Dollar Money Drop' couple invited back after show corrects itself
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The couple who lost $800,000 on FOX's "Million Dollar Money Drop" thanks to faulty research on the show's part has been invited back -- but they won't be getting the money they lost in the meantime.Gabe Okoye and Brittany Mayti were the first contestants on the new game show last week, and they rolled through four of seven questions with ease, keeping $880,000 of the $1 million they were given to start the game. Then came the fifth question: Which was sold in stores first, Post-Its or the Walkman? Okoye bet $800,000 on Post-Its, which the show said was wrong.
Except it wasn't. After a storm of online criticism over the answer (Post-Its weren't sold nationwide until after the Walkman but had appeared in some stores first), "Money Drop" executive producer Jeff Apploff admitted the goof in a statement last week and said that Okoye and Mayti were welcome to return if they wished.
The show has not, however, offered to pay the couple anything from their initial appearance. As host Kevin Pollak notes to The Hollywood Reporter, Okoye and Mayti lost their remaining $80,000 on the next two questions. (Whether they would have bet differently with more money is an open question.)
"Million Dollar Money Drop" returns for a second run on FOX on Jan. 4, but Okoye says he and his girlfriend haven't decided whether they'll return. "To go through that again -- maybe to lose again -- that's a lot of stress," Okoye tells The New York Times.
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I disagree, Anne. They botched the next two questions. Even if they got to the end with all 800,000, they were pooh-poohing Jon Stewart as the most trust news anchor. They were sure it was Brian Williams. And on the last question, you have to bet all your money on one answer. So they would've lost anyway.
This is a bad deal. These people should have been restored to where they were before the botched question and allowed to continue from that point with new questions. It was the show's error, not theirs, and they deserve better than this.
ALthough the answer was later discovered to be incorrect, they still answered the question wrong as it was stated.
B the question was which item was sold first in stores. Post its were the first item sold in stores first. True it did not start out nationwide like the walkman did. The question was not what sold in stores nationwide first? the question was which sold first?
the research team formulating the questions for this show did a bad job with it, with the wording and making sure the answers were actually correct, when you have a 'trick' question with more than 1 correct answer that is not fair to the contestants... I would personally sue for at least half of what they lost regardless of additional questions.
I want to cheer for this couple but like 80% of the MDMD contestants, they were so sure of themselves and so wrong. They buggered themselves on the last question and would have still lost. Kevin Pollak is right. They are getting a free shot at making themselves look like fools again on national TV and possibly walking away with nothing.
Although nowhere near as horrific as the idiots on DoND (mercifully gone from national airwaves)I wonder if Fox chose the loudest, most obnoxious couples who don't agree on anything and whose spouses second-guess them into the wrong decision on everything.
It makes me root AGAINST the contestants when they blow an easy question (and frankly, not knowing about Jon Stewart was inexcusable) and wondering if people are watching for the contestants to win (good game shows, like Don't Forget the Lyrics) horrible ones (DoND), or MDMD, which I rate on the lower end but in the middle.
Pollak? I love ya man, but do not tell them the million is theirs. It's theirs to risk. They HAVE to risk it. EVERY time. And if anyone in their right mind thinks they will survive will a million, they should book a plane to Vegas yesterday.
The show was a HUGE fail in the ratings the first time. I'm surprised they are even doing a 2nd week of it. Still, the people should be restored to the 800,000 they had since the question was flawed and the answer was right. How sick and idiotic to punish the couple for the show's mistake! That's like perverted white people in the South that championed slavery and punished black people for being uneducated when they treated them as less than human beings to begin with. God's got some serious redemption to make amends for all the abuse black people have suffered in this country.
Jon Stewart is a funny comedian on a Comedy Central news parody program. Although The Daily Show is informative and entertaining, how can Stewart be considered a news 'anchor' in the first place? Williams, Couric, Sawyer and the PBS and cable news people are legit anchors. They have paid their dues as reporters to EARN the title of news anchors. Stewart was paying his dues in clubs and bit parts in movies. I would have thought it was a trick question. Just the fact that America put him on top of that supposed 'poll' says a lot about the American public. Uninformed and uneducated...they must be spending their time watching contestants answer unresearched questions on MILLION DOLLAR MONEY DROP.......
I think your a bunch of idiots to turn this into a race thing. grow up I know a lot african americans who are very successful through their hard work and refusal to talk like this and bring up their children in believing that the world is against them
Here's a suggestion. If they would have got the question right, then they would have moved on to the sixth question with $800,000. Why not just let them start on the sixth question to be fair? The UK version of this show had things like that and let the people start at the point where they would have finished the question. Thus, let them start on the sixth question because it's fair.