Thoughts on Sharon Cuneta’s Win on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

by ManicallyDepressed

Yes, you read the title right. A few hours ago, Sharon Cuneta beat the game to win 2 MILLION PESOS for a charity institution. The big question is…

How did she do it?

To answer the question, let’s do this the Slumdog Millionaire style.

A.) She cheated.
B.) She’s lucky.
C.) She’a a genius.
D.) It is written.

Hmm... I think I’ll go with D.) It is written. And I don’t mean it like how it was meant in Slumdog Millionaire.

If you still don’t know what I’m trying to say, what I’m simply saying is that Sharon Cuneta’s win is scripted, prearranged, for show only, or “lutong macau”. Need I say more?

First of all, I’m not saying that Sharon is not smart enough to win this game. I’m saying I can’t believe the way she did it.

I was only able to watch the last 4 or 5 questions. At that point, she had not yet used any of her lifelines. This point of the game was still believable for me. I mean she still had a long way to win. I was even impressed when she answered a movie question with utmost confidence. When she used the “Ask the Audience” lifeline, though at very close percentages, the audience still gave the correct answer. The question was about a place in Manila so it was a good idea to trust the audience. After using the “50-50” lifeline on another question, she was still unsure of the answer. She just guessed. Not a big deal. 50% is huge.

I got suspicious when she used the “Call a Friend” lifeline. The friend (Director Joey something), although not completely sure, gave an answer and a reason for his answer. A REASON FOR HIS ANSWER! Since Joey wasn’t really sure, Sharon had two logical choices at this point: Go for Joey’s answer or take the money. What she did is she jumped from one answer to another. Why the hell do that? She didn’t even have any idea on the answer. If she planned to answer, it’s logical and natural to answer her friend’s answer. But no, she needed to add suspense. She even had this long drama on whether or not to continue. Vic Sotto even joined in on the drama by indirectly forcing Sharon to continue.

The thing is I would not have gone too far to write an article about this if Sharon had stopped at 1 million pesos or lost at the last question. After the 2 million pesos was shown, I told myself I have to do this if she answered it correctly. This is the 2 million pesos question: (translated from Filipino)

Which among these was used by the witches in Macbeth Act 4 as an ingredient in their potion?

A. Serpent’s fang
B. Dragon’s tail
C. Lizard’s leg - ANSWER
D. Bat’s tooth

Do you know how hard this question is? I was online during the game. I googled each question. For all the questions the first search result (usually, the wiki entry) contained the answer. Not this one. It took me a few minutes to find it. I needed to find the actual Act 4 of Macbeth because this question isn’t exactly general knowledge.

Maybe you’re thinking Sharon read Macbeth. Well, that’s actually how Sharon “acted”. She looked like she was remembering what she read. Here’s the actual Macbeth passage:

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

That’s how confusing the choices are. It didn’t confuse her and she only answered once like she actually remembered! I just can’t believe she remembered this small detail on a book she read ages ago. Even if she read it few hours before the show, it’s just crazy. You need to MEMORIZE these whole two passages. Last time I checked, Sharon doesn’t have eidetic memory.

I just hope the charity institution actually receives 2 million pesos.

Oh! Did I mention Sharon’s birthday was a few days ago? I rest my case.