RELATED CONTENT: Game show gal answers $250,000 question
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There were cheers and tears as about 25 family and friends gathered in Dawn Simpson’s home to watch the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner’s Gossip Gal win $250,000 on TV quiz show Millionaire Hot Seat on Tuesday night.
No one other than Dawn’s sister, June Wadell, who accompanied her to the filming of the show, and Bay Post/Moruya Examiner journalist Carmen McIntosh, had any idea of Dawn’s win.
Dawn was under strict instructions to keep the news a secret until after the showed aired, even from son Tom, who excitedly phoned his mum as soon as the show finished.
It was standing room only in Dawn’s Surf Beach lounge room, as friends and family called out answers to each of the questions.
Dawn gave little away, other than the occasional snippet of gossip she had learned about each contestant.
Dawn breezed through the first two questions from host Eddie McGuire, but passed on the third.
She returned to correctly answer questions about sorghum and Harry Potter, but said she thought her left and right ventricles were “just about to collapse” after answering a maths question.
Dawn had everyone in stitches as she divulged her elimination process for guessing Aladdin for “which stage musical adaptation of a Disney movie opened on Broadway in March 2014?”
“Those girls can look beautiful in those things, like genie, prancing about the stage,” she said.
“Where would they get all the sea for the Little Mermaid? Pocahontas? If they had a tepee they would burn the place down with the fires and (it’s not) Beauty and the Beast, because you and I weren’t available, Eddie.”
Upon being asked the final, $250,000 question: “In 1861, a gold watch served as
the trophy for which famous sporting event?”' Dawn was so certain she got up and
kissed McGuire before stating her answer: “Lock in A.”
She could barely speak as he asked how she knew the answer.
“I love the Melbourne Cup,” she said.
“Oh, my god, I know it’s right.”
Dawn spent Wednesday in Sydney, appearing on Channel Nine’s Mornings, and undertaking three radio interviews.
The community has got right the winner, with her many fans congratulating her on Facebook.
Several said they were crying when watching it and the win was well deserved.
“Lovely news, for a lovely woman. So well deserved, I hope you have a lovely holiday away, Dawn, you deserve it,” one fan wrote.
“She was fantastic to watch, very deserving and entertaining,” wrote another.
To watch the episode online visit www.9jumpin.com.au/show/hotseat/