Three Wise Men

Three Wise Men
Description	A contestant gets help from a panel of 3 (less often 4) experts
Appearance	US: Super Millionaire (2004) Latvia: 2006-08 Germany: September 10, 2005 September 18, 2017 Russia: 2006-08 Estonia: 2007-08 India Hindi: 2014 Arab League: 2015-16 Hong Kong: March 2018 Croatia: 2020-22
Availability	Last 5 questions: Super Millionaire All questions: Russia, Estonia, Germany, India, USA, Latvia, Hong Kong, Croatia

Three Wise Men was a lifeline introduced in the U.S. on Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire.

Usage

Along with Double Dip, this lifeline could only be used by contestants if they correctly answer the tenth question, worth $100,000. When a contestant decides to use this lifeline, the host will read and feed the question to a panel of three experts, and they will have 30 seconds to confer and figure out the answer to the question. The clock's graphics are the same as with Phone-a-Friend, but smaller.

One of the three experts would be a past Millionaire contestant and another would be a female. A different panel would appear on each episode, but their identities would not be revealed until a contestant correctly answers their $100,000 question. If that does not happen before they are almost out of time, their identities are revealed then.

The lifeline's graphic is a mortarboard, symbolizing the intelligence of the experts.

The chart below lists people who have appeared for the Three Wise Men lifeline.

Date	Name	Contestants they helped	Notes
February 22, 2004	Nancy Christy123 Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson Anthony DeCurtis	Todd Kim
February 23, 2004	Dr. Abbie Salny2 Dr. Drew Pinsky John Carpenter1	Robert Essig
February 24, 2004	David Goodman1 Tracy Caldwell Dyson2 Michael Starr	N/A	They were the first "Three Wise Men" to not help a contestant.
February 26, 2004	Kevin Olmstead1 Dr. Curley Bonds Lisa Schwarzbaum2	Michael Koehn	They were the first "Three Wise Men" to not be revealed after a contestant incorrectly answers their $100,000 question as well as the first to get a question wrong.
February 27, 2004	Erin Barrett2 Kim Hunt1 Charles Preston	N/A	They were the second "Three Wise Men" to not help a contestant.
May 16, 2004	Belinda Luscombe2 Dr. Jim Gates Dan Blonsky1	Scott Hoff Judi Stauber
May 17, 2004	Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi2 Michael Starr John Carpenter1	N/A	They were the third "Three Wise Men" to not help a contestant.
May 18, 2004	Jenny Elesnu2 Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson Kevin Olmstead1	Devin McMahon
May 20, 2004	Pat Thompson123 Chris Farley Dr. Glen Ferrart	Jason Carter
May 23, 2004	Dr. Anna Fisher2 Fred Nelson Joe Trela1	Pat Headley
May 25, 2004	Lori Meduski2 Dr. Tyra Spiegel2 Kevin Olmstead1	N/A	They were the fourth "Three Wise Men" to not help a contestant.
May 26, 2004	Nancy Christy123 Albert Kim Ken Davis	Chris Smith
Key: 1Past Millionaire contestant | 2Female | 3Past female Millionaire contestant

International versions

• In the 500th episode of the German version, this lifeline was also available to all contestants, with the difference being that there were four experts instead of three.
• The lifeline was also used on the Russian version of the show, from October 14, 2006, through April 8, 2008. With the full guest list below:
  • October 21, 2006 - Yelena Malysheva, Gennady Vdovin, Larisa Rubalskaya
  • October 28, 2006 - Tatyana Metaksa, Viktor Gusev, Pavel Kaplevich
  • November 11, 2006 - Thecla Tolstaya, Boris Khimichev, Gennady Gudkov
  • December 2, 2006 - Yevgeny Lovchev, Pyotr Tolstoy, Grigory Gladkov
  • December 9, 2006 - Oksana Pushkina, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Anatoly Trushkin
  • January 20, 2007 - Alexander Sedov, Yekaterina Andreyeva, Anatoly Kucherena
  • January 27, 2007 - Pavel Globa, Margarita Eskina, Boris Grachevsky
  • February 3, 2007 - Nikita Kucheruk, Olga Sviblova, Alexander Inshakov
  • February 10, 2007 - Arkady Inin, Mariya Kiseleva (for unknown reasons, there were only 2 Wise Men)
  • March 3, 2007 - Tatyana Ustinova, Vladimir Dashkevich, Viktor Verzhbitsky
  • March 17, 2007 - Arina Sharapova, Maksim Dunayevsky, Georgy Grechko
  • March 24, 2007 - Simon Osiashvili, Arkady Arkanov, Alexey Mitrofanov
  • April 7, 2007 - Yury Vyazemsky, Yelena Zelenskaya, Sergey Lukyanenko
  • June 17, 2007 - Yefim Smolin, Mariya Arbatova, Alexander Zhurbin
  • July 1, 2007 - Vsevolod Shilovsky, Aristarkh Livanov, Vladimir Vishnevsky
  • July 8, 2007 - Vadim Andreyev, Yekaterina Semenova, Andrey Smolyakov
  • July 14, 2007 - Yekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya, Alexander Peskov, Valentina Dashkova
  • November 11, 2007 - Polina Dashkova, Dmitry Koldun, Svetlana Masterkova
  • November 18, 2007 - Alexander Shaganov, Svetlana Nazarenko, Leonid Olshansky
  • March 15, 2008 - Boris Burda, Yelena Orlova, Ilya Novikov
  • March 29, 2008 - Askold Zapashny, Boris Burda, Ilya Novikov
  • April 19, 2008 - Boris Krasnov, Grigory Oster, Vyacheslav Spesivtsev
  • April 26, 2008 - Irina Otiyeva, Arkady Ukupnik, Yelena Nazarova
• In the Arabic version, this lifeline was used in the 2015-2016 season.
• In the Hong Kong version, the lifeline was used for two specials in March 2018.
• In the India Hindi version, three experts sat on the audience rows of the show's studio instead of a special room.
• In the Croatian version, Three Wise Men lifeline replaced the Ask the Audience lifeline on May 14. 2020. due to social distancing measures in place because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Like the India Hindi version, the experts were seated in the audience seats behind the contestant. The lifeline does not have a time limit, similar to Ask the Expert.

Modified versions

• In 2000, the Hungarian version had the first modified version of the Three Wise Men, called "Ask the other contestants 2 times". Eight years later, on the Norwegian version, this lifeline was renamed as Ask the Star, using celebrities instead of experts. In 2020, in the German version, this lifeline was renamed once again as Ask the Millionaires. This lifeline was very similar to Three Wise Men, except with only two experts (celebrities) instead of three, and it had 60 seconds to use.
• In 2008, the second modified version of the Three Wise Men lifeline, called Ask the Expert, was introduced for the Clock Format. This lifeline had only one expert, and there is no time limit to use.
• Since May 5, 2020, the third modified version of the Three Wise Men lifeline, called Two Wise Men, was introduced for the 11th season of Ai Là Triệu Phú. This lifeline was very similar to the Ask the Star lifeline, with only two experts in a special room, and this lifeline had only 30 seconds to use.

Gallery

Rave version of the Three Wise Men lifeline icon

Dark Rave version in Croatia (2020), Vietnam (2021-)

Three Wise Men Clock (same as Phone-a-Friend)

First use of Three Wise Men lifeline in Todd Kim's run (Wise men from right to left: Nancy Christy, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Anthony DeCurtis)

The Three Wise Men lifeline in use during Scott Hoff's run (Wise men from right to left: Belinda Luscombe, Dr. Jim Gates, and Dan Blonsky)

Three wise men in Arab League (2015-16)

Usage in Arab League (2015-16)

Three Wise Men in Croatia (2020)