by Thinus Ferreira
M-Net's Afrikaans TV channel kykNET says no cheating - just a spelling mistake that had to be fixed - took place during the recording of an episode of the Afrikaans version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? that was broadcast last week and which forced an abrupt halt in-studio when it was recorded.
According to in-studio guests who witnessed what happened when Wednesday night's episode was recorded a while back, the recording of the episode in the studio was abruptly stopped, with a producer who then interacted with a contestant to the disbelief of the in-studio audience - after which the episode continued and with the contestant giving the correct answer.
Christiaan Boonzaier of Fish Hoek who won the kykNET reality show Saktyd a decade ago was a contestant during this past Wednesday night's episode of the third season of Wie Word 'n Miljoenêr? on kykNET (DStv 144), with the local version of the Sony Pictures Television format which is produced by Red Pepper Pictures.
In an architecture question at the R30 000 level, Boonzaier was asked who designed Kensington Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and Hampton Court in England, with Le Corbusier, Christopher Wren, Herbert Baker and Andrea Palladio as possible answers.
Boonzaier used his 50/50 helpline to eliminate Herbert Baker and Andrea Palladio as possible answers. He then used another lifeline to ask host Rian van Heerden who said he had no idea and doesn't "have a cooking clue" about which one the correct answer is.
DStv subscribers saw Christiaan Boonzaier seamlessly choose Christopher Wren which turned out to be the correct answer.
During the recording of the episode, there was however a break when the making of the episode paused.
According to studio audience members, a "man who wore glasses" did well "up to about halfway and then got a very difficult question about architects he didn't know and the host didn't know".
According to them "he used his lifelines and then wanted to just guess, he decided on one answer, he spoke about why he was going to pick it and then producers just ran onto the set. They said they were going to cut".
"It wasn't an ad break, the host didn't say it's an ad break - they just cut. Then the producer pointed at his screen, spoke to him softly and said cameras will roll again. When it did, he suddenly decided to change his answer to his other option without explaining why and then the host said he got it right. It was weird and felt unfair".
An audience member said: "I thought the producers helped him because the contestant won some other kykNET show a long time ago and they didn't want to embarrass kykNET, but when we walked out, a lot of the audience was talking about it".
"People who sat on the contestant's side of the audience said they thought they heard he was given an R125 000 question by mistake instead of something like R25 000."
Lindi Lucouw of Red Pepper Pictures and executive producer of the third season of the game show, in response to a media query confirmed that filming of episode 10 of Wie Word 'n Miljoenêr? "was paused due to a typo on the contestant's screen".
Lucouw stressed that "The contestant did not receive a new question nor any help from the producer that followed the correct protocol for such an incident."
"The question in question, which was Who was the architect that designed the St Paul's Cathedral and Hampton Court Palace?, wasn't wrong, however, there was a typo in one of the possible answers on the screen in front of the contestant."
"Instead of Christopher Wren, which was one of the answer options, it was put forward as Christoper (without an "h") Wren."
"Despite the typo, Rian pronounced 'Christopher' correctly. The typo was picked up by the team and the game was immediately paused in order for the producer to alert the contestant. The game continued and the contestant chose the right answer having used two of his lifelines."
"During the rest of the episode the contestant advanced to question 12 but stumbled and walked away with R50 000," Locouw said.
"The handling of the matter was ratified by an independent auditor who was on set, while it was also approved by the international format holders."
Asked how many times this has happened before, Lucouw said that "a substitute question was not given in this instance and it has never happened in the 104 episodes recorded thus far of the kykNET version of Wie word ‘n Miljoenêr?. The auditors' reports can verify this".
The show also points out that the questions to contestants are automated by a computer and are set to the specific parameters of each monetary amount.
Suzaan Keyter, senior manager for publicity for premium channels at M-Net, added that "Incidents like this rarely happen but if it does occur the guidelines, as stipulated in the international format bible, is used to manage the situation and ensure that it is resolved in a fair way".
"Game show formats often make use of on-set auditors to ensure the rules of the game are followed. It is not uncommon for a game to be paused while filming."
