Stars who almost became millionaires in a minute

A number of popular celebrities were seen ditching the glamour, breaking a sweat and being pushed over the edge by panic and focus to play in some of the most memorable games on ABS-CBN’s top-rating game show Minute to Win It.

To date, Minute to Win It has yet to award its first million-peso grand prize, but some were brave enough to continue to the nerve-wracking Level 10 challenge, but ultimately failed, including Gerald Anderson and Ella Cruz. Both brought home P250,000.

Ella was the first-ever player who went on to face the final challenge since the premiere of Minute to Win It in mid-January. With only one life to lose, she chose to play the final game called Ping Tac Toe, arguably one of the most difficult games in the franchise, which required her to bounce ping-pong balls into a grid of glasses to get a three in a row.

Gerald also had the same struggle with ping-pong balls in his ultimate challenge called Triple Pong Plop in which he tried to get three ping-pong balls into a container by bouncing them off three plates that were lined up before the container.

Only four celebrities — not even regular players — managed to bring home P500,000 in the show’s six-month run. Refusing to take on the bid for the top prize were Julia Montes, Pokwang, John Lloyd Cruz and John Estrada, who all quit after completing Level 9 and chose to play it safe so they could give a bigger amount of money to their chosen charities.

Among those who braved to play in the 60-second circle were beauty queens Shamcey Supsup, Janine Tugonon and Bianca Manalo, broadcast journalist Julius Babao, singers Rico J. Puno and Martin Nievera, actress-comedienne Ai-Ai delas Alas, Chef Lau Laudico and actresses Maja Salvador, Cristine Reyes and Melai Cantiveros.

Viewers got to see a different side of Julius, who, under pressure, opted to take the risk, but failed to complete the Level 8 challenge worth P250,000. He ended up earning P75,000 for failing to get a partially filled water bottle land upright on a table.

The usually prim and refined Shamcey, meanwhile, raced against time and pressure and managed to nail a buzzer beater in the Office Dominoes challenge, where she was able to set off a chain of reams of paper on a domino path, with the last ream falling onto a bell.

Minute to Win It has become a favorite morning habit of Filipinos. Aside from consistently figuring on the list of the country’s most watched weekday programs, it has also triggered a wave of excitement among viewers who enjoy it as a family and barkada fare, its game blueprints that make use of readily available materials replicated in all sorts of parties and gatherings.

To keep the show exciting amidst a stream of players taking on deceptively easy challenges, ABS-CBN, the so-called Game Show Capital of the Philippines, introduced a more competition-centric and pressure-driven Head to Head Challenge, where the clashing personalities and backgrounds of the players are played up and the challenges untimed in the first part of the game.

Head to Head is a tiny switch-up from the previously launched Junior Edition, which featured kids nine to 15 years old, that also banked on the face-off of two competing players or teams. The Philippines’ Junior Edition was the first-ever in the global TV franchise’s history, in which the reward system was introduced to reinforce kids to be more active and competitive.

Minute to Win It made waves in the US and around the world for its highly-addictive and nerve-wracking games and has been franchised in 40 countries, including Australia, India, Germany, Malaysia, Spain and the UK. 

With its strangely addictive format and games, Minute to Win It appeals to everyone. One doesn’t have to have a certain level of intelligence or a special talent to achieve something and change their lives. But if there’s one thing the show advocates, it’s “practice makes perfect.” It encourages its contestants to hone their skills at home with readily available materials, and with a stroke of luck, determination, skill and diskarte, they can win the million-peso prize.