Do you ever wonder what the hot seat feels like on the television game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
Jim Matthews, Chief Programmer for Kiewit, knows what it's like firsthand. He won $500,000 on the show -- just one question away from the grand prize.
Since the show aired in December, Matthews noticed a few new perks in his life. "It was exciting for a short time and some people recognized me from being on TV," he said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
More importantly, "the longer lasting change is the financial security that it gives us," said Matthews. He put aside a large portion of the money into a college account for his 10 and 11 year-old sons, who surprisingly were able to keep the secret about their father's success after the taping until the show aired, as required by the show's producers.
Matthews said he plans to use the rest of the money to pay taxes as well as finance a trip to Hawaii to see his wife's parents for their 50th wedding anniversary later this year.
Matthews said he always enjoyed trivia games such as Trivial Pursuit but never expected to use his skills on national TV.
After watching the show on TV a few times, Matthews decided to try and call to be on the show. He answered a series of multiple choice questions correctly over the phone, but even so the chances of being selected are quite slim.
After being selected for the show, ABC assigned him his own personal Associate Producer to organize his trip to New York City. Matthews wanted his wife and two children to come to New York with him for support, though ABC only covers the expenses for one accompanying person.
For the taping of the show Matthews's cousin sat as the guest the show calls to sit in the audience directly behind the contestant on camera, while his wife and two boys watched the show from backstage because those under eighteen are not allowed to sit in the audience.
During the show, Matthews said he blocked out the music and lights used to make the show more dramatic which made it less stressful for him.
In Matthews's opinion, playing on the show felt almost exactly the same as playing at home with the TV or on the Internet. He told himself, "This is just a game."
When Matthews approached the six-figure questions ABC allowed his wife and kids to stand near the stage to watch the show. Producers encouraged the boys to jump up and down with excitement when Matthews won the $500,000, which they did enthusiastically.
During the show, Matthews was happy to put in a couple of plugs for Dartmouth. He mentioned Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center when posed the question "Who was Gerald Ford's Vice President?" The answer is Nelson Rockefeller, the Dartmouth alumnus for whom the Center is named.
Later when asked who argued the Amistad case in the Supreme Court, Daniel Webster was presented as one of the four possible answers. Matthews mentioned Webster's connection to Dartmouth -- he argued the Dartmouth College Case at the Supreme Court -- while eliminating his name as a potential answer.
For the $250,000 question that asked, "What city was formerly named Christiania?" Matthews used his "phone-a-friend "lifeline."On the show, each contestant is given three opportunities to get help on a question. One lifeline allows you to poll the audience, another eliminates two of the four answers, and the third allows you to phone a friend to help you answer the question.
Matthews called a computing services colleague at the College who had planned to look up the answer at an online search engine. Unfortunately the plan did not work, but Matthews was able to correctly answer that question using the 50/50 lifeline.
Among other unused phone-a-friends was Dan Demars who had previously been on the show and won $250,000. Demars was also helpful with advice before Matthews made his TV debut.Another hard question for him was one about the "House Party" Movie, Matthews said. Although he had never seen the movie before, Matthews said he was able to come up with the correct answer -- the stars were rappers Kid 'n' Play -- by remembering the box of the movie, which he saw while searching for a movie at Videostop.
Matthews said he will continue his job at the College and doesn't plan on changing his lifestyle at all. While in general the experience still "doesn't seem real" according to Matthews, it is still a "big relief" to have the added security for the future.
