The founding member of 1980s pop band The Models tops the record charts and takes home $500,000 on Million Dollar Minute.
Seven’s quiz show Million Dollar Minute rewrote the record books yesteerday when contestant Pierre Sutcliffe took home a life-changing $503,000 – believed to be the biggest cash win on an afternoon quiz show in Australian television.
The deciding question posed by host Simon Reeve during the Million Dollar Minute was: “Which word describes political action supported by two groups usually opposed to each other?”
With just one second left on the clock, Sutcliffe correctly answered “Bipartisan” and received the biggest cash pay-day in afternoon game show history.
“This is a life changing event – it’s opened the door to a world of new possibilities. I think I’ve chiseled my name into the good books with my wife for life,” Sutcliffe said.
Sutcliffe was only one game away from winning the magical million dollars, but he opted to leave the show after panicking in the final moments of the nail-biting game.
“That political question absolutely threw me and I didn’t have any time left to think so I just had to pick an answer – I was sweating over it,” Sutcliffe said.
The secret to his success, Sutcliffe said, was a pair of lucky socks he wore in every show and his veracious appetite for knowledge – fueled by reading newspapers every day since he was young.
“There is not a day in my life I have not read a newspaper…it finally occurred to me that going on Million Dollar Minute could be my retirement plan,” he said.
The 55-year-old father-of-five lives in Melbourne’s Bayside suburbs and says his cash windfall will help fund his family’s future. “The next step will be moving closer to golf courses and vineyards and perhaps enable my kids to fulfill their dream of opening a café,” Sutcliffe said.
His newfound fame has come later in life than originally expected. Quitting school aged 14 to become a rockstar, Sutcliffe formed the 1980s pop band The Models – a band he named and created – only to quit due to creative differences before it became a household name.
MILLION DOLLAR MINUTE airs weekdays at 5.30pm on Channel Seven.
