Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? leaves viewers baffled after contestant blunders on Tiger King question

‘Anyone else screaming at the TV?’ asked one frustrated viewer

A contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? has left viewers shocked after stumbling over a question about the Netflix docuseries Tiger King.

Craig Blackburn appeared on Sunday night’s (17 January) episode of the ITV competition in a bid to win the £1m jackpot prize. However, he was stumped by a question early on.

Host Jeremy Clarkson asked: “What is the subject of the 2020 Netflix documentary series in which Joe Exotic clashes with Carole Baskin?”

Blackburn was presented with four options: “American big cat community”, “Failed luxury music festival”, “Cambridge Analytica data hack” and “New York drag queens”.  

The documentary in question is Netflix’s Tiger King, which was released in March 2020 and became one of the streamer’s standout hits of last year. 

Blackburn, however, had not seen the docuseries and used his 50/50 lifeline to remove two wrong answers, leaving him with “American big cat community” and “Cambridge Analytica data hack”.

Still flummoxed, the contestant proceeded to phone a friend. When the friend said they were also unsure, Blackburn chose to use his Ask the Host lifeline in order to quiz Clarkson on his knowledge of the series.

Clarkson said that he had seen the show in question, telling the contestant that he was “gripped” by the story of “lunatics” that it told. Blackburn eventually gave the correct answer – but not before viewers at home mocked him for his poor knowledge of popular culture.

“Anyone else screaming at their TV when the guy who didn’t know what Tiger King was about on #whowantstobeamillionaire?” wrote one frustrated user on Twitter.

Another person said: “So apparently two people in Britain didn’t watch Tiger King… most shocking news I’ve heard in the past year.” Someone else wrote: “HOW do people not know what tiger king is? It was the most talked about thing for months?”

“It’s time to finish my who wants to be a millionaire application cos this boy nearly just went out on a question about Tiger King and i think i could win £125k,” added one user, while another wrote: “The guy didn’t even deserve 32k after never hearing of Tiger King.”

Others, however, defended Blackburn from the criticism, stating: “I haven’t watched it. I’m a key worker & work has been busier than ever in 2020, not everyone has been sat at home on Netflix! Give the guy a break!”

Another person echoed the same sentiment, sharing a post that reads: “I can’t believe the number of people commenting on Tiger King, Normal People and Netflix.

“Not everyone sat at home being paid to watch TV. Some of us worked.”

“I watch a lot of TV but I don’t have Netflix and have never heard anyone talking about Tiger King. It’s nothing to be proud of knowing, as opposed to more serious general knowledge,” said a third person.

Blackburn went home with £32,000 in winnings.