'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire': Dr Phil is so agonizing that fans want to 'throttle the idiot'

His lack of knowledge in math and geography and his constant bickering didn't impress fans
PUBLISHED MAY 15, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

TV personality and author, Phil McGraw, better known as Dr Phil appeared on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' on Thursday night. Before him, Catherine O'Hara had walked away with $250,000, the highest amount won by a celebrity this season.

Dr Phil had a lot of difficulty with math and geography related questions in the episode and fans of the show branded him an "idiot" among other things while watching him play the game. Some of the common comments trickling in on Twitter were on these lines: "Watching Dr Phil on who wants to be a millionaire....... remembering why I always thought he was an idiot" and "watching him on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and my goodness Dr Phil is the worst". 

He was also reasoning every question that popped up on his screen. For example, there was a question with the words "clenching an open palm" and he was arguing about the wording not being proper and was also heard asking if it's a "trick question".

This further agitated the viewers, one of whom commented, "Watching 'Dr.' Phil on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is agonizing." Another said, “Wait, so that’s just something you have to know... it’s not something you can reason out?" One more commented, "Yeah, goober... it’s called trivia."

Another fan wrote, "I already didn't like Dr. Phil but this episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire just makes me want to throttle him Jesus f**k quit debating the wording of every f***ing question you're still in the easy baby range even."

Here's what happened in the 'epic' episode. Dr Phil was on the show to win money for his wife's charity 'When Georgia Smiled', which is dedicated to organizations and programs that raise awareness, offer solutions and address the needs of children and families that have been victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

We have seen a lot of 'Jeopardy!' contestants appear this season, serving as advisors to celebrities. Dr Phil too brought in a 'Jeopardy!' contestant, Pam Mueller, and enlisted her as "the smartest person" he knew. This elicited a joke from host Jimmy Kimmel, who said, "You help people all the time and now Pam is here to help you. You need mental health, Dr Phil."

The first few questions were easy breezy for him. He was stumped for a while with the fourth question which was about sign language but he managed to answer that and the next one on his own, without any help from Mueller. However, Mueller's advice was finally needed when a question about Marie Kondo threw Dr Phil off the rails. He said he did not know about Kondo's show and Pam had to step in to help him win $2,000. Mueller once again had to step in to help him guess the name of the satirical news source that made T-shirts like 'Jesus is my Health Insurance'. 

He had so far won $4,000. However, the next question was math-related and it turns out that math has never been his favorite subject. The question was: "Jimmy has $1 in dimes and nickels and he has twice as many dimes as nickels, how many nickels does Jimmy have?" Not only did he straightaway go to Mueller for help once again but he admitted to not wanting to understand the logic behind the answer.

He now had $16,000. However, what came next caught him off guard and it was a question related to geography. The question was, "Believe it or not, 27 US states lie at least partially north of Canada's southernmost point, which is in what province?" It took a breakdown from Mueller and the use of 50:50 for Dr Phil to answer this question correctly. He finally managed to secure $32,000 for his wife's charity. 

Tune into 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' next Thursday to see Dr Phil play the next five questions.

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