With "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" German celebrities raised a total of 346,000 euros for a good cause on Thursday evening.
For the 41st time, moderator Günther Jauch (64) has the big "Celebrity Special" of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" loaded on RTL (and "TV Now"). His colleague Johannes B. Kerner (55), TV chef Steffen Henssler (48), ex-tennis player and Olympic champion Michael Stich (52), the German long-distance runner Sabrina Mockenhaupt (39) and football trainer and official Ralf Rangnick (62) were able to get together collect a total of 346,000 euros. As part of the 25th RTL donation marathon, the money raised will go to the "RTL – We Help Children" foundation, which is used to finance various aid projects.
Rectangles, British songs and the Darwin hump
It was Henssler's turn as the first candidate. He had no problems either with scales or the typical "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Puns and with a little help from the additional joker he was able to correctly recognize lines from "Song 2" by the British band Blur when asked for 8,000 euros. Even after a while he was able to answer correctly with "seven" how many rectangles the playing field marking lines make on a football field that complies with the DFB rules. But he no longer knew that the so-called Darwin hump was found on the human ear. Even a doctor as a telephone joker couldn't help him. Fortunately, the TV chef didn't take any chances and was able to secure 64,000 euros.
Mockenhaupt and Rangnick then competed as a duo. She didn't want Jauch to consider her a "hollow pear", she explained at the beginning – and after her performance, the long-distance runner probably doesn't have to worry about that. Among other things, the duo solved a math problem correctly and was also able to answer that Florian Silbereisen (39, "Das Traumschiff") was born on the same day as Duchess Meghan (39). The two were able to get to the 500,000 euro question, but not answer it, which is why Mockenhaupt and Rangnick got out with 125,000 euros. They did not know that linguistics deals with "echo questions" and not with "avalanche words", "mountain sentences" or "foehn statements".
Barbie dolls and supposed tennis players
The next candidate was Stich, who not only knew about Metallica ("Nothing Else Matters"), but also about Barbie dolls. He knew that there was a scale of 1: 6 in production. In the end, however, only 32,000 euros were collected in his group, because he could not answer which German celebrity had his first marriage at the age of 23 and was divorced again at the age of 27. The correct answer: Chancellor Angela Merkel (66).
Curious: Stich was allowed to call two telephone jokers beforehand, but neither of them could help him – the "hunter" Sebastian Klussmann (31), known from the quiz show "Asked – Hunted", and comedian and quiz pro Bernhard Hoëcker (50). He also made for one of the biggest laughs of the evening because he asked if the actor Veronica Ferres (55), who was also available, was a tennis player.
Like the previous candidates, Johannes B. Kerner had no major problems with his first questions between monitor lizards, ducklings and current beauty trends. That, according to a household tip, scratches on wooden furniture and parquet floors can be concealed with walnut kernels, Kerner was only able to answer correctly with public and 50/50 jokers. When the 125,000 euro question was asked, he gambled, although he still had an unused telephone joker: "What is it usually about when we talk about circulation, interim and bonus times?" He was right with the answer "traffic lights". Kerner decided to no longer answer the following question and to secure the amount earned.
In the footsteps of the celebrity millionaires Thomas Gottschalk (2008), Oliver Pocher (2008) and Barbara Schöneberger (2011) nobody could slip into this time.