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$535,500 as Million Dollar Minute champs breaks new record

An ecstatic $MDM winner pockets the biggest-ever cash prize for an afternoon quiz show in Australia.

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2014-10-07_2350Million Dollar Minute has given away its biggest-ever cash jackpot, $535,500, to quiz master Dougal Richardson.

Richardson, who works in the agricultural finance sector, left the Seven show yesterday after winning $500,000 -plus $35,500 in safe money he had secured earlier. The total is believed to be the biggest cash prize ever won on an afternoon program in Australian TV.

But it was his 14-year-old son George who enrolled his father on the Seven quiz, without his father’s knowledge.

“My son, George, took it upon himself to enrol me to go on Million Dollar Minute while I was at work. He didn’t ask for my permission and he then took on a coaching role and appointed himself as my manager,” Richardson said.

“George was ecstatic I had been accepted to compete on the show because he watches Million Dollar Minute religiously every day after school with his two brothers and together they coached me on strategy and gameplay.

“I would never have gone on the show or won a cent if it wasn’t for my son. Now that I’ve actually won all this money, George has informed me he is entitled to at least 10 per cent commission!”

Dougal is the third contestant to take home the $500,000 jackpot with previous record holderJonathan Maher winning $510,500 cash in July.

7 Responses

  2. @Rutzie. It’s easy to say that. I was hoping he would go on too but it’s a lot of money and if I were in his position I probably would’ve made the same decision.

    On another note, introducing the 75K safety net was the best thing MDM producers could have done. It’s made people play on to higher amounts of money, making the show more exciting and entertaining.

  3. @ tezza1972. The show premiered in August 2013 to an audience of over 800,000 before struggling to achieve 400,000 viewers. The last six months has seen it harvest more than 500,000 watchers and there have been a few occurrences where it has won in total viewers.

    The point I was trying to make in reference to the ratings is that its competitor on Nine isn’t going unchallenged anymore. A disparity of 200,000 viewers no longer exists between the two. Simon Reeve has proven to be MDM’s saving grace.

  4. @danny – Not sure what figures you’re looking at. But the gap has got bigger over the past six months. Last time I checked the average daily margin was 60,000 in Hot Seat’s favour.

  5. I implement a very different mentality when viewing a game show, that being I love seeing everyday battlers winning huge sums of money and prizes. This was no exemption yesterday during “Million Dollar Minute”. Congratulations Dougal Richardson on your historic win.

    Even better is how it’s closing the gap in ratings with Hot Seat, an even bigger feat than Mr Richardson’s win. To think of the innumerable sum of folks calling for MDM to be axed this time last year reminds me of the mantra “success is the best revenge”.

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