The secret is out. He didn’t reach millionaire status, but he still left New York a winner.
Erik Tracy, a psychology lecturer at Ohio State, was a contestant on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” during an episode that aired in Columbus Thursday night. Last week was part of “Netflix Million Dollar Movie Week.”
He walked away with $15,000 and a yearlong subscription to Netflix.
During the show he used a “double dip,” an “ask the expert” and an “ask the audience” lifeline. By using a double dip, the contestant can give two answers. If they are both wrong, contestants drop back down to $5,000, Tracy said. He answered correctly the first time around.
The next question was about the city where scenes from the movie “Vertigo” took place. Tracy said he was about 90 percent sure of the right answer, but with $10,000 at stake, chose to contact two film critics for his “ask the expert” lifeline. The correct answer was Philadelphia.
“I should have gone with my gut instinct on the ‘Vertigo’ question,” Tracy said.
The next question was his final one.
He had to decide who the actress was with a “six degrees of separation connection” to both Al Pacino and Kevin Bacon.
Possible answers were Michelle Pfeiffer, Talia Shire, Ellen Barkin and Anne Heche.
If he didn’t answer correctly, he would leave with only $5,000.
With $25,000 on the line, Tracy chose to use his final lifeline and ask the audience.
After doing so, Tracy was still unsure and he chose to take the money he had won up to that point. It turned out that was the better choice — the audience was wrong. Fourty-nine percent thought the answer was Pfeiffer, but the correct answer was Barkin.
They may have picked the actress they were most familiar with, Tracy said.
“At that level of a question, I didn’t think the audience was going to know it,” Tracy said. “I used it as a time out.”
For now, there’s a new TV in his future, and a new Blu-ray player to go with it.
Life is getting back to normal after four months of waiting to share his news. The down payment on a house will have to wait.
“I’m just relieved I can talk about it,” Tracy said.
