Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Wiki

On Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, a zeronaire (a portmanteau of the words zero and millionaire), or, informally in the U.S. primetime era, a llama, is a contestant who wins nothing at all by giving a wrong answer before reaching the first milestone on the Money Tree (usually question 5, although in certain very-high-risk formats, there may by only one adjustable milestone, or even worse, no milestones at all).

Notes:

  • 1: Contestants who left with nothing because they played on a very-high-risk format are noted below.
  • 2: This list only contains contestants who won nothing by giving a wrong answer before the first safe level. It does not contain other contestants who won nothing because they failed to win the Fastest Finger First rounds, and therefore failed to get into the hot seat at all.
  • 3: For contestants who played the Hot Seat format, this list only contains contestants who flunked out within the first 5 questions. Since only the last remaining contestant in the hot seat gets all the money at the end of the episode, the other 5 contestants all go away empty-handed, regardless of if they flunked out within the first 5 questions or the next 10 questions.

List of zeronaires[]

United Kingdom[]

Note: This list only contains contestants who won nothing by giving a wrong answer to questions 1-5 (£100-£1,000). It does not contain other contestants who left with nothing because they failed to win the Fastest Finger First rounds, and therefore failed to get into the hot seat at all.

No contestant on the hot seat under the 12-question format walked away empty-handed (they would have to give a wrong answer on either question 1 or 2, which never happened).

United States[]

Primetime[]

Note: This list only contains contestants who won nothing by giving a wrong answer to questions 1-5. It does not contain other contestants who left with nothing because they failed to win the Fastest Finger First rounds, and therefore failed to get into the hot seat at all.

  • Robby Roseman - $0 (August 22, 1999) (1st question wrong)
  • Brian Fodera - $0 (January 20, 2000) (1st question wrong)
  • David Gold - $0 (February 10, 2000) (5th question wrong)
  • Steve Fayne - $0 (February 22, 2000) (4th question wrong)
  • Jon Futrell - $0 (March 24, 2000) (2nd question wrong)
  • Allen Kong - $0 (April 6, 2000) (3rd question wrong)
  • Martin Poteralski - $0 (April 30, 2000) (5th question wrong)
  • Jeremy Conklin - $0 (May 11, 2000) (5th question wrong)
  • Karla Robinson - $0 (July 20, 2000) (4th question wrong)
  • Sal Mecca - $0 (January 19, 2001) (5th question wrong) $1.8 million jackpot
  • Chris Goldschmidt - $0 (January 25, 2001) (5th question wrong) $1.83 million jackpot
  • Stan Wu - $0 (February 21, 2001) (5th question wrong) $1.96 million jackpot
  • James Dinan - $0 (April 5, 2001) (4th question wrong) $2.16 million jackpot
  • Debby Mittelman - $0 (July 12, 2001) (4th question wrong)
  • Eric Mason - $0 (November 11, 2001) (5th question wrong)
  • Jennifer Starks - $0 (March 7, 2002) (3rd question wrong)
  • Dede Bradley - $0 (February 24, 2004) (5th question wrong)
  • Ellen Gaines - $0 (August 16, 2009) (5th question wrong)

Syndicated[]

Note: Contestants from the shuffle format from 2010-2015 leave with $1,000 after answering incorrectly on any of the first ten questions, even if they had less than that amount on their bank upon answering incorrectly. Contestants from Season 14 onwards who answered incorrectly any of the first five questions are still listed below, despite technically winning a $1,000 consolation prize, which is not mentioned on the show (see the rules page on the official website for more information).

Australia[]

Standard format[]

  • Richard Hatch - AU$0 (October 9, 2000) (4th question wrong)
  • Richard Farrington - AU$0 (November 20, 2000) (5th question wrong)
  • Unknown contestant - AU$0 (2001) (5th question wrong)
  • Unknown contestant - AU$0 (2001-03)
  • Unknown contestant - AU$0 (May 12, 2003)

Hot Seat format[]

Note: This list only contains contestants who flunked out within the first 5 questions. Since only the last remaining contestant in the hot seat gets all the money at the end of the episode, the other 5 contestants all go away empty-handed, regardless of if they flunked out within the first 5 questions or the next 10 questions.

New Zealand[]