Millionaire contestant to get second chance
The producers of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Have agreed that a contestant who disputed an answer that cost him £93,000 should get a second chance.
The argument centred on the medical word lunula.
Asked where it was in the body, Shane O'Doherty replied - after phoning a
friend - that it was in the heart.
But Gay Byrne declared it was in the fingernail. Mr Doherty, 44, from Templeogue, Dublin, left with £32,000, rather than the £125,000 a correct answer would have secured.
Mr O'Doherty later put the matter in the hands of his solicitors for consideration of possible legal action and later leading heart surgeon Maurice Nelligan maintained the lunula he knew was definitely in the heart.
Tyrone Productions, which runs the programme, said it had decided to reinstate Mr O'Doherty "in the spirit of the show" at the £125,000 point, even though it repeated the programme's answer had been in line with the rules.
It also said the move to give Mr O'Doherty a new shot had followed considerable research and legal consultations.
