'Who wants to be a Millionaire?': Where is show's first winner John Carpenter and what is he up to now?
'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' is airing currently in the US as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the show. It is for the first time in 10 years that the show is on TV during primetime and celebrities are playing the game to donate to their favorite charities. 'Millionaire' started 20 years ago when it aired for the first time in August 1999 and in November the show got its first contestant who paddled through all the 15 questions to become the ultimate millionaire.
This event is from 20 years ago but people have not forgotten it and it is still counted as one of the greatest moments in television history. The contestant in question was a 31-year-old man John Carpenter from Hamden Connecticut. An employee with the Internal Revenue Service, John sat across the iconic host Regis Philbin and answered the first two questions correctly but unfortunately, the time-up siren echoed across the studio and he had to wait it out one more night to emerge as the winner. He returned in the next episode and continued to answer the next 13 questions and ultimately winning $1M while being at ease and guess what? No lifelines used, whatsoever! A feat so astoundingly incredible that no one has been able to replicate the same in all these years and no one did it before John appeared on the show too and chances of the same happening in the near future are slim.
The final question that would earn him $1M dollar was “Which of these US presidents appeared on the television series ‘Laugh-In’?" The options were Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford. Philbin reminded him that getting the question wrong would mean losing a whopping amount and dropping down to $32,000.
"I’d like to call my parents right now, use my lifeline,” said a cool and composed John, laughingly. Once his father came on the line, he blurted out the most mind-blowingly iconic sentence, "Hi, Dad. I don’t really need your help. I just wanted to let you know that I’m gonna win the million dollars," and the audience immediately cheered as loud as possible for him while Philbin looked on in sheer disbelief.
"The US president who appeared on 'Laugh-In’ was Richard Nixon, that’s my final answer," said John in one go without contemplating any further. Philbin turned to John's wife sitting in the audience and said, “What can I say except Debbie, you’re going to Paris, and this is the final answer heard all around the world. He’s won a million dollars!”
It's been 20 years but the clip of him winning the show has millions of views on YouTube over the years. People still tweet about him winning the show and search for his accounts to ask him about his composed attitude on the show. Reflecting on his win, John mentions that it was a "whirlwind" experience. “It was a spur of the moment thing. I’m a little bit of a smartass, I look back on it and — well, thank God I was right,” he said jokingly in one of the interviews.
It took some time for his win to sink in for John, " “It was very surreal, for all I knew it could have been a big practical joke or something," he said. He also added that he doesn't exactly remember how he concocted the sentence that he told his dad on the phone and it was just a spontaneous in the moment kind of a thing.
John walked away with $600,000 after tax deductions but he didn't quit his job at the IRS, a move that shocked a lot of people. He still continues working there and mentioned, "It’s a hell of a lot of money, but I live in New England. If I lived somewhere else, maybe it would be different.”
He leads a pretty normal life currently, plays trivia at the local brewery and one of his teammates just recently discovered that he was the winner of "Millionaire". As for the money he won, most of it was invested or was set aside for the future of his young son. And, yes, the IRS agent did indeed pay the 40% he owed in state and federal taxes.
The day after John's episode aired, he was invited to appear on “Saturday Night Live" as part of the cold open. The skit starred Darrell Hammond playing a celebrity who was running for president and John played Donald Trump. He also appeared on the HBO prison drama 'Oz', playing a contestant on a TV show called Up Your Ante, which the prisoners watched.
'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' airs Wednesday nights on ABC.