William Laing, a technical writer from Leichardt, New South Wales, appeared on Series 8 of the Australian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on 16th October, 2000 and won AU$500,000, equalling Trevor Sauer's record as the show's biggest winner at the time.
WWTBAM Run[]
William's (partial) Run to the Million[]
| $500,000 (14 of 15) - Not timed | |
| Janszoon was the middle name of which early explorer of waters around Australia? | |
| ⬥ A: Luis Torres | ⬥ B: Abel Tasman |
| ⬥ C: Dirk Hartog | ⬥ D: William Dampier |
| $1,000,000 (15 of 15) - Not timed | |
| How many humans have set foot on the moon? | |
| ⬥ A: 10 | ⬥ B: 12 |
| ⬥ C: 14 | ⬥ D: 16 |
| Not confident enough to risk the $500,000, and with all lifelines exhausted, William walked away, saying he would have guessed B: 12. If he had gone for it, he would have become the Australian version's first ever millionaire. Total Prize Money: $500,000 |
Trivia[]
- William appeared on The Chase Australia on 9th November 2015, where he took the high offer of $38,000 and make it through to the final chase, also his other 3 team members also managed to get through making the bank total of a record (that was never been broken before) of $102,000. Then, they were able to defeat chaser and fellow Millionaire contestant Brydon Coverdale by earning 25 steps, when he only scored 19. Then, he appeared on the show's spin off Beat The Chasers on 8th November 2020, where he earned a cashbuilder of $3,000, he then took the high offer again of taking on 4 chasers with 59 seconds for $101,000, but unfortunately he ran out of time before the chaser's which is still at 10 seconds and he left with nothing.
| Preceded by Paul "Fatty" Vautin |
Australian Contestant (Series 7) William Laing |
Succeeded by ? |