“CC Bloom’s, a hotel in the tropics of Thailand, is named after a character from what 1980s movie?”
That was the $25,000 question that stumped Chris “Mr. T” Hyatt, a senior in French, during his stint on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” that aired Thursday and Friday.
His strategy: “make as much money as humanly possible without screwing up,” Hyatt said.
In the end, he walked away with a $16,000 prize.
“I was being very cautious,” Hyatt said. “I am a poor college student, after all.”
Hyatt said he will get his prize money in mid-March.
What he does with it depends on how much is left after taxes, Hyatt said. He hopes to make a trip to Montreal for St. Patrick’s Day and maybe buy a cheap car. He has been without a car since his broke down almost two years ago.
Hyatt made a trip to Cleveland in September to try out for the show at a local comedy club. He had to take two tests before speaking with a producer.
In October, he found out he was picked for the show and his family made an 8-hour car trip to New York for the taping.
Hyatt said he spent about eight hours a day at the studio during the course of a couple of days. Most of the time he was in “contestant isolation” to preserve secrecy and avoid cheating. He was not allowed to use the restroom without an escort, he said.
Hyatt was originally picked for College Week when “Millionaire” featured a week of all college contestants. Of the 11 people picked for that week, Hyatt said he and three others were bumped to the regular version of the show because of time constraints. Fellow Ohio State student Jenna Duffy was on the show in November and also walked away with a $16,000 prize.
Hyatt speculated that he could have done better on questions tailored to college students, but he was still satisfied with his performance.
“I haven’t seen ‘Beaches’ since I was a kid,” said Hyatt, referring to the movie starring Bette Midler that was the correct answer to the CC Bloom question.
Hyatt said he attempted to brush up on his trivia before the show, but it was not much help.
“I tried studying, like playing online ‘Millionaire’ and I quickly realized there’s no point,” he said. “They write the questions in a separate building a couple days before. About two weeks after I found out, I just stopped.”
Hyatt used all three of his lifelines. For his “phone a friend” he called fellow OSU student Sarah Ellison. He asked her to be near her computer with Google and Wikipedia open. When he asked her what “perfectly noiseless” invention was patented in 1988, Ellison was quickly able to respond with the correct answer: a revolving door.
While Hyatt projected confidence on the screen, that was not how he felt, he said.
“I was outside of my freaking mind nervous,” Hyatt said.
He said host Meredith Vieira was a help.
“She was really cool,” Hyatt said. “She’d take steps to make sure that no one is going absolutely nuts in the hot seat.”
“I think out of all our friends, Mr. T. would be the one to be on the Millionaire show,” said Amanda Ferrell, a junior in history. “He just knows so many random things.”
Overall, she thought Hyatt did well. She said it was very like his character to stop when he did.
She was among a group of friends who gathered around the Television in Hyatt’s living room on Friday night. He used a DVR recorder to repeat the showing for those who showed up late.
“I was secretly hoping he would win a lot of money so he could by us all beer,” said Stephanie Williams, a sophomore in pre-med, jokingly.
Hyatt said he was not allowed to tell anyone how much money he won until after the show aired.
“I think it’s amazing,” said Ashley Dale, a junior in art education. “I think he could have got the last question if he had gone with his gut, but, oh well. It’s still a good amount of money.”
