A MILLIONAIRE contestant has walked away from $500k on a simple question in a recently resurfaced clip.

The video had been circulating around on social media lately, and seemed to show a question that if one contestant could have answered, they would have walked away with $500k.

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A Millionaire contestant walked away from one of the ‘easiest questions ever’ during a 1999 episode of the game showCredit: X/historyinmemes

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The moment resurfaced in a clip recently on X, formerly known as TwitterCredit: X/historyinmemes
For $500k, the contestant had to answer the question: “Which of the following characters is not considered a ‘Pokémon’?”

The choices were Jigglypuff, Frodo, Squirtle, or Pikachu.

Frodo is a character from The Lord of the Rings.

All of the others were the correct names of Pokémon.

The question took place during the November 18, 1999 episode of the game show.

Instead of making a guess, however, the contestant decided to walk away where they stood.

“Regis, as much as I’d like to go for the million bucks, I can’t leave $250k on the table. I don’t know anything about this. I’m gonna walk away,” he proclaimed.

“Oh, my God, alright, fine,” Regis Philbin replied at the time

He handed over the check for $250k to the contestant.

“I’m sorry about that Pokémon,” the late Regis said as the contestant walked away.

“I know I could hear every kid in the country screaming at the TV,” he said with a laugh before revealing that the answer had been “Frodo.”

However, Regis incorrectly mentioned that Frodo was from The Hobbit.

The character Frodo did not appear in The Hobbit as he had not been born yet in the story, but he did star in The Lord of the Rings.

COLD FEET

Last August, Ken Jennings’ forgotten appearance on Millionaire was deemed “questionable” by a member of the staff.

The Millionaire staffer told The U.S. Sun the entire team was shocked that Ken- who had already nabbed millions as a Jeopardy! contestant- walked with $100,000 when he easily could have won.

Ken, 49, and Mayim Bialik, 47, officially took over as Jeopardy! co-hosts in 2022 after Alex Trebek’s passing at age 80 from pancreatic cancer.

Long before that – but after he became Jeopardy!’s most famous contestant – Ken appeared as a contestant on the Guinness World Records Edition of Millionaire with Terry Crews.

Ken’s Guinness qualification, of course, was his groundbreaking 74-game Jeopardy! run in 2004, still the longest winning streak in history.

Ken earned $2.5M, making the Utah-based Mormon software engineer a household name, and $4.3M total, counting subsequent tournaments.

‘THAT’S A LOT OF MONEY…’

Ken made it to the $250,000 question, having previously used his three lifelines.

That meant only three questions separated him from $1 million, which only 13 people have won since the show debuted in 2000 with Regis Philbin.

The question read: “Before signing off with ‘Thank you and good night and God bless America,’ Al Gore ended his 2000 concession speech with what line?”

The choices were A: “From sea to shining sea.” B: “That’s a fight I’ll never stop.” C: “I heard you and I will not forget.” D: “It’s time for me to go.”

Ken was indecisive and told Terry: “I feel like if I had to pick, if you were forcing me to pick, I’d pick D [which was correct].”

“But I don’t feel like I’m sure enough. I don’t feel like I’m sure enough to risk $100,000.

That’s a lot of money.”

“I think it might be time for me to go, not Al Gore- me,” he quipped.

Ken walked away with $100,000 despite his hunch being right -meaning he just had two questions to go- and despite already being a ‘millionaire’ from Jeopardy!.

‘HE PLAYED FOR MONEY, NOT TO WIN’

The staffer exclusively told The U.S. Sun that even a decade out, she’s haunted by Ken’s decision (to wit, no one has ever won $1M on two game shows).

She anonymously shared: “He played the game so safe.”

“He probably knew the answers coming up; he probably could have won.

“But he walked away, which was shocking to us.

“Also, he had won so much money that we didn’t think the money would have been that important to him.

The Millionaire staffer continued: “People play millionaire to win the game or win money.

“We thought he was going to be all or nothing, try for the top.

“If you don’t get it, you bomb out. But he walked away.

“Do you really need $100,000?” she continued.

“We made him take the test to get on Millionaire; he went through the whole process. He was nice!”

“Why not just keep playing?” she asked, since Ken’s prowess indicated he could have easily won, which would have been a terrific feather in his already impressive trivia cap.

She shared they were banking on Ken trying to go all the way and didn’t think he’d take anything less when making TV history was on the line.

“I wonder if viewers were disappointed by that,” she continued.

“I’d imagine your average American watching the show would be like, ‘You don’t need the money. Why aren’t you going for this?’

“You’re almost there.”

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The contestant had to choose one out of four options that was not a PokémonCredit: X/historyinmemes

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Instead of guessing, the contestant left and took the $250k offered to him insteadCredit: X/historyinmemes

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Regis Philbin confirmed the correct answer was ‘Frodo’ out of the optionsCredit: X/historyinmemes