Imagine winning a trivia show and being able to pay off student loans plus go on a trip to Europe. That’s exactly what Andrew Kravis, the winner of “The Million Second Quiz,” gets to do.
“The Million Second Quiz” aired on Sept. 9 on NBC with famous host Ryan Seacrest. It streamed live online until the finale on Thursday, Sept. 19.
Viewers had the chance to become contestants by playing the game on the app downloaded from the Apple store or Google store, so the contestants on the show were just everyday people who happened to be great at trivia. They played online, and NBC flew them to NYC so they could play on the show.
“The Million Second Quiz” was the first television program where viewers were able to play along with the game during the show.
In the competition, time was equivalent to money. For every second spent in the money chair, contestants earned $10. They would have rounds of trivia, and if the person sitting in the money chair lost, then he or she was kicked out of the chair.
The show is comparable to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” where Regis Philbin hosted, and the winner won up to $1 million after answering rounds of multiple choice questions that got more challenging as the game went on.
What makes this show different is that it gave away the largest game show prize in game show history. The winner alone won $2.6 million, and the second, third and fourth place winners all won over $100,000.
The top four contestants were to stay in an adjacent building, called Winner’s Row, from the hourglass, where the show was aired in the middle of Manhattan. These contestants stayed there until the show ended, after one million seconds was up.
The top four that ended the show were Andrew Kravis, Brandon S., Devin L., and Kathy F. All four of them ended up walking away with some money in their pocket.
The online game is still available on NBC’s website, here.
Also NBC’s website, it shows how many games were played on the app in each city. In Cleveland alone, there were 49,431 games played. Altogether there were 1,499,946 trivia players that played a total of 28,151,447 games.
It’s still in question whether or not there will be another season of “Million Second Quiz.” Until then, Andrew Kravis and the other winners will be enjoying their prize money while everyone else is waiting to take the “Million Second Quiz.”