Millionaire Hot Seat contestant loses £99K after getting English poetry question wrong

A Millionaire Hot Seat contestant saw a potential £100,000 prize collapse to just £1,000 after being faced with a deceptively difficult question about English poetry.

Padraig was the final contestant to take the Hot Seat during Wednesday’s episode of the ITV quiz show, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. With only minutes remaining in the 30-minute programme, the pressure was firmly on.

Clarkson warned that Padraig’s turn could spell bad news for the other contestants because he would be the last player to answer questions before the episode ended.

Padraig faced a £100,000 question

As Padraig settled into the Hot Seat, Clarkson explained exactly what was at stake.

“If you get this right you win £100,000, if you get it wrong we will give you £1,000,” the host told him.

Padraig responded with a joke: “I’ll take the first option Jeremy.”

Clarkson then made the stakes even clearer, telling him that £99,000 was effectively resting on whether he knew the answer.

The question was:

Which of these famous English poems was written first?

The four choices were:

• The Tyger by William Blake
• Don Juan by Lord Byron
• Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
• To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Padraig admitted that his answer would be a “complete guess”. He began examining the titles and thinking about which poem appeared to be the oldest.

Eventually, he said he felt “pushed towards” Don Juan.

Unfortunately for him, that choice was wrong.

The £99,000 mistake

The correct answer was The Tyger by William Blake.

Padraig therefore missed out on the £100,000 prize and was left with £1,000 instead.

Clarkson offered his sympathy after revealing the answer, telling the contestant: “I am really, really sorry about that.”

The result prompted plenty of reaction from viewers on X, with some fans describing the question as particularly harsh.

One viewer wrote that it was a shame to see the £100,000 disappear, adding that the show was “so tricky for anyone to win money”.

Another said the moment had been painfully close, while pointing out that £1,000 was still better than nothing.

A third viewer summed up the uncertainty of the format by saying that luck “can be lovely, but then it can be a devil”.

Another questioned whether anyone would eventually manage to win the £1 million under the new rules.

How Millionaire Hot Seat is different

The ITV spin-off puts a very different spin on the familiar Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? format.

Rather than one contestant playing through an entire episode, six hopefuls take turns occupying Jeremy Clarkson’s Hot Seat. Only the player in the chair can answer the questions and climb the money ladder.

The game is also played against the clock, with no lifelines to fall back on. A correct answer allows a contestant to remain in the Hot Seat and progress up the ladder, while a wrong answer eliminates them and reduces the top prize.

Contestants can choose to pass on a question, but doing so sends them to the back of the queue. The next player must then face the same question.

That structure means even a contestant who has built up a substantial prize can see it disappear with a single mistake, as Padraig discovered when his £100,000 opportunity became £1,000.

The format features six contestants competing within a 30-minute episode, making the game considerably faster than the original programme. ITV describes it as a fast-paced, tactical version of the classic format, with players required to combine quick thinking with careful decisions.

Clarkson has previously likened the concept to “a very expensive game of musical chairs”.

Millionaire Hot Seat airs tonight at 7.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX and continues every weeknight.