On Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, if a Top Prize Winner is a contestant who wins the top prize by answering all 15 questions correctly (usually 1 million units of the local currency), then a penultimate prize winner is a contestant who wins the second-biggest prize (usually 500,000 units of the local currency), by answering the first 14 questions correctly, and then walking away from the 15th and final question.
List of penultimate prize winners[]
United Kingdom[]
- Peter Lee - £500,000 (18 January 2000)
- Kate Heusser - £500,000 (2 November 2000)
- John Randall - £500,000 (27 November 2000)
- Steve Devlin - £500,000 (20 January 2001)
- Mike Pomfrey - £500,000 (12 March 2001)
- Peter Spyrides - £500,000 (16 October 2001)
- Roger Walker - £500,000 (26 February 2002)
- Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn Bowen - £500,000 (11 February 2006)
- John Robinson - £500,000 (4 March 2019)
- Davyth Fear - £500,000 (1 September 2019)
- Andrew Townsley - £500,000 (12 May 2020)
United States[]
Primetime[]
- Michael Shutterly - $500,000 (August 25, 1999)
- David Fite - $500,000 (January 10, 2000)
- Rob Coughlin - $500,000 (January 23, 2000)
- Stephanie Girardi - $500,000 (February 17, 2000)
- Mike Menz - $500,000 (April 27, 2000)
- Drew Carey - $500,000 (May 2, 2000)
- Rosie O'Donnell - $500,000 (May 3, 2000)
- Tim Shields - $500,000 (???, 2000)
- Tom O'Brien - $500,000 (June 11, 2000)
- Joe Kelleher - $500,000 (July 23, 2000)
- Phil Gibbons - $500,000 (August 15, 2000)
- Pat Thompson - $500,000 (November 8, 2000)
- Norm Macdonald - $500,000 (November 19, 2000)
- Justin Ray Castillo - $500,000 (November 26, 2000)
- Jim Matthews - $500,000 (December 6, 2000)
- Gary Gambino - $500,000 (March 1, 2001) $2 million jackpot
- David Stewart - $500,000 (April 1, 2001) $2.14 million jackpot
- Steve Perry - $500,000 (April 22, 2001)
- Moe Cain - $500,000 (May 1, 2001)
- Rob and Mary Beth McNally - $500,000 (May 17, 2001)
- Tom Hoobler - $500,000 (June 5, 2001)
- Mary Burke - $500,000 (June 14, 2001)
- Lauren Lapkus - $500,000 (May 28, 2020)
- Anderson Cooper - $500,000 (June 4, 2020)
- Julie Bowen - $500,000 (November 1, 2020)
Syndicated[]
- Armand Kachigian - $500,000 (May 9, 2003)
- Jeff Gross - $500,000 (November 18, 2004)
- Ogi Ogas - $500,000 (November 8, 2006)
- Lyn Payne - $500,000 (November 1, 2007)
- Charles Esten - $500,000 (November 21, 2013)
Australia[]
Standard format[]
- Trevor Sauer - AU$500,000 (September 4, 2000)
- William Laing - AU$500,000 (October 16, 2000)
- Dave and Denise Moser - AU$500,000 (June 4, 2001)
- Maria McCabe - AU$500,000 (April 8, 2002)
- Molly Meldrum - AU$500,000 (April 28, 2003)
- Andrew Lockett - AU$500,000 (September 8, 2003)
- Scott Smith - AU$500,000 (October 4, 2004)
- Shane Warne and Trevor Sauer - AU$500,000 (February 14, 2005)
- Clifford Plumpton - AU$500,000 (June 27, 2005)
- Yael Blinco - AU$500,000 (November 21, 2005)
Hot Seat format[]
- Evan Hudleston - AU$250,000 (July 6, 2009)
- Oliver Pennington - AU$250,000 (July 27, 2009)
- Kevin Hoey - AU$250,000 (August 12, 2009)
- John Botfa - AU$250,000 (September 7, 2009)
- Mike Curtis - AU$250,000 (November 9, 2009)
- Dominic - AU$250,000 (2009)
- Julie King - AU$250,000 (March 22, 2010)
- Dave Bowyer - AU$250,000 (May 31, 2010)
- Brian Caplen - AU$250,000 (June 30, 2010)
- Joanna Broadley - AU$250,000 (October 19, 2010)
- Chris Bosse - AU$250,000 (June 27, 2011)
- Clayton Kewar - AU$250,000 (February 14, 2012)
- Kiran Singh - AU$250,000 (January 1, 2013)
- Elaine Deverix - AU$250,000 (April 8, 2013)
- Gary Stiles - AU$250,000 (August 5, 2013)
- Sarah Wyatt - AU$250,000 (August 7, 2013)
- Amander Van Keimpema - AU$250,000 (February 17, 2014)
- Matthew Ford - AU$250,000 (February 19, 2014)
- Kathy Bates - AU$250,000 (March 2014)
- Jessica Van Der Zwart - AU$250,000 (August 14, 2014)
- Laura Purcell - AU$250,000 (February 2, 2015)
- Daryl Moody - AU$250,000 (May 18, 2015)
- Dawn Simpson - AU$250,000 (July 28, 2015)
- Erin Lamkin - AU$250,000 (September 14, 2015)
- Loretta Lee - AU$250,000 (September 28, 2015)
- Anna Owens - AU$250,000 (August 23, 2016)
- Sophia Gogos - AU$250,000 (August 24, 2016)
- Mike Glynn - AU$250,000 (October 10, 2016)
- Matt Benbow - AU$250,000 (January 30, 2017)
- Sandy Robinson - AU$250,000 (June 5, 2017)
- Ann Ewart - AU$250,000 (February 26, 2018)
- Kieran Magee - AU$250,000 (July 31, 2018)
Vietnam[]
Standard format[]
- Nguyễn Lê Anh - ₫80,000,000 (September 9, 2008)
- Bùi Thị Hà Thanh and Đào Hồng Vũ - ₫80,000,000 (November 18, 2008)
Hot Seat format[]
- Lê Văn Tuân - ₫80,000,000 (April 12, 2011)
Poland[]
- Władysław Kostrzewski - 500 000 zł (October 21, 2000)
- Zbigniew Chrzanowski - 500 000 zł (May 21, 2001)
- Jerzy Mirski - 500 000 zł (October 14, 2001
- Paulina Kowalczyk - 500 000 zł (April 5, 2008)
- Dagna Sieńko - 500 000 zł (May 18, 2008)
- Rafał Tomański - 500 000 zł (November 22, 2008)
- Renata Dancewicz and Piotr Adamczyk - 500 000 zł (December 7, 2008)
- Marzena Rogowska - 500 000 zł (April 25, 2009)
- Katarzyna Zaręba - 500 000 zł (October 24, 2010)
- Karolina Korwin-Piotrowska and Michał Piróg - 500 000 zł (Deccember 19, 2010)
- Sonia Ciuk - 500 000 zł (March 15, 2017)
- Kinga Rusin and Piotr Kraśko - 500 000 zł (April 15, 2017)
- Remigiusz Skubisz - 500 000 zł (October 16, 2017
- Zbigniew Zamachowski and Borys Szyc - 500 000 zł (December 7, 2017)
- Dominik Komorek - 500 000 zł (September 10, 2018)
- Maksymilian Bilewicz - 500 000 zł (March 4, 2019)
- Marcin Kot - 500 000 zł (March 16, 2020)
- Łukasz Grymuza - 500 000 zł (October 22, 2020)
- Maciej Adamski - 500 000 zł (November 16, 2020)
- Mikołaj Masłowski - 500 000 zł (December 2, 2020)
- Maciej Mędrzycki - 500 000 zł (April 7, 2022)
- Przemysław Zieliński - 500 000 zł (April 21, 2022)
- Małgorzata Rozenek-Majdan and Krzysztof Skórzyński - 500 000 zł (October 3, 2022)
- Sławomir Świątecki - 500 000 zł (April 17, 2024)
France[]
- Denis - 300.000 € (December 29, 2002)
- Marguerite Nowacki - 300.000 € (August 11, 2004)