Failure rates around the world

[supermillionaire]

In another thread, I wrote about how it's not funny to see people flunk out horribly. But now, there are two new things that I want to know. This is the first of two new topics concerning failure, bringing in some completely new elements, and this topic deals with failure rates around the world.

In my essay for my psychology class, I define success as winning $32,000 or greater and not subsequently losing the majority of your winnings by flunking out on a higher-level question; by contrast, I define failure in two ways: type 1 is to flunk out within the first five questions and leave with absolutely nothing at all (think Robbie Roseman or Chase Sampson); type 2 is to flunk out within the last two questions and have the majority of your winnings decimated (think Kati Knudson or Ken Basin). In the U.S., both types of failure are common, but between the two types, type 1 is far more common; so many people have left with absolutely nothing at all. On the UK version, failing of both types was much rarer; fewer than 10 contestants left the show with nothing, only two contestants answered the £500,000 question incorrectly and lost £218,000, and no contestant has ever officially lost £468,000; the one time that a £1 million question was answered incorrectly, it turned out to be a flawed question, so the two celebrity contestants who played that question, Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen, were invited back to play a second £1 million question, and this time, they decided to walk away with £500,000. Internationally, I've seen lots of failures, both type 1 and type 2, in Asia, especially in Japan, as well as in Australia and New Zealand, whereas in Europe, failure generally seems to be much rarer; I don't have any data from the African or South American versions of the show, since I haven't seen any clips of those versions yet, but from what I have seen, failure appears to be very common in the U.S., Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, whereas in Europe, it seems to be very rare. Why is it that way? Why is failure more common in some countries and less common in other countries?

[GSK]

Nov 27, 2017 12:11:15 GMT -5 supermillionaire said:

Why is failure more common in some countries and less common in other countries?

Different cultures.

/thread

[Victor]

Culture probably doesn't explain everything. The way the contestants are selected might be different. If you are going to audition people at a casino you will likely get more risk takers than if you have a phone number that just about everyone can call.

And as discussed in the other thread, the amount of money compared to living standard is probably a factor. The more money that is on the line, the less likely you will take a risk. And vice-versa.

[ThePaSch]

I actually think the high round 1 failure rate in the US has to do with the "final answer" rule. While the UK version oftentimes also had Tarrant confirm with "final answer?", it was not usual (or necessary) for a contestant to always confirm their answer for it to be locked in; and, on the flipside, there was also no requirement to immediately lock in the contestant's answer upon their uttering of the words.

In Germany, we pretty often get contestants on the hot seat struggling with a first-round question. They read the question -
which, in the first round, is pretty much always a terrible pun, which is funny on one end, but can also lead to embarrassing situations if the contestant happens to not quite get it - they misunderstand the pun, they immediately go for a wrong answer. "Yeah, I'm gonna go with B, final answer!"

In the US, their game is over right then and there, and they leave with nothing, because "Final Answer" is the trigger word. Once you say it, there's no going back, no matter what. "Final answer" means "final answer", and the answer is immediately locked in as soon as those words come off your lips.

In Germany, if you're in round 1 and express that you'd like to lock in the correct answer, we proceed in the same way - your answer is immediately locked in, you get your hundred quid, and the game proceeds. If you go for the wrong one, however - even if you say "final answer" (or "das logge ich ein") - the host will hesitate and start to help you out. Nobody wants to see someone lose their big once-in-a-lifetime chance on the hot seat just because they didn't understand a pun on the first go, so if the answer is A), but you place a lot of false confidence into the fact that it must certainly be B), the host is going to subtly nudge you in the right direction. "Try reading the question again!", "Why do you think the answers are so weird?", "Take your time. There's no rush."

And it works. In our 18-year history of the show, and after over 2,500 contestants, only 30 have ever left without a single penny in their pocket, 5 of which were part of a "Jackpot Special" (think Hot Seat, but not quite), where only one of the six contestants in the studio had the chance to take home any money at all. And 20 of them were invited back to the show throughout the years in a "second chance special", and none of them failed early a second time.

0€ winners are usually extremely stubborn about their choice of wrong answer, and after a certain point, there's no point in wasting half of the airtime in order to protect someone from a fall they're very eager to take, so it's not like we have no first-round losers at all. But in order to leave with nothing, you really have to be averse to subtle assistance.

I'm guessing the other international versions with low first-round loss rates deal with potential disasters similarly.

[Deleted]

Yes, indeed, I agree with ThePaSch at this point. In some international versions, your final answer will be locked in and you won't be able to undo it, regardless if you said it accidentally. In the German version Wer wird Millionär, the host is actually helping you out a bit, trying to prevent you locking in the wrong answer in case you'd want to go for it.

But I believe that it's also relevant how the contestants take the questions - would they rather walk away with their previously earned amount or would they risk it? Well, at least that is my theory.