What a ludicrously capacious answer.
John Mulaney and Nick Kroll fumbled a question about “Succession” during the first episode of the celebrity version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” on Wednesday night.
The duo, who were playing for charity, made it to the $125,000 question after they earned $32,000 but used three out of their four lifelines.
Host Jimmy Kimmel read the “Succession” question: “The stand-out item at a 2024 auction of memorabilia from TV’s ‘Succession’ was an extra large Burberry tote bag famously described on the show as what?”
There were four choices for the answer: A: Hideously expansive, B: Farcically behemoth, C: Ludicrously capacious and D: Grotesquely sprawling.
Mulaney, 41, and Kroll, 46, were immediately stumped by the question.
“Not to be a jerk, but if it’s so famous how come we don’t know about it?” Mulaney joked.
The pair decided to use their final lifeline — Ask The Host — and called on Kimmel, 56, for help.
“I did see the episode. I love the show. I love Cousin Greg. I love Tom,” Kimmel said.
The late-night host talked it through and landed on A (Hideously expansive) as the probable answer because it “would have sounded funniest” on the Emmy Award-winning HBO series.
“That was useless to us,” Mulaney, who also speculated the answer could be A, jokingly old Kimmel.
“I asked them not to have this lifeline in the show this year because it’s too much,” a distressed Kimmel responded. “What other show does the host actually have to play?”
Ultimately, Mulaney and Kroll took Kimmel’s advice and guessed A.
But they were wrong — the correct answer was C (Ludicrously capacious).
The line is said in the show by Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) about Cousin Greg’s (Nicholas Braun) date’s bag at Logan’s (Brian Cox) birthday party during the Season 4 premiere.
“I blame the writers,” Kimmel jokingly said.
Mulaney and Kroll lost the $125,000 but ended the game with $32,000 for their charity.
Fans were in disbelief that the comedy duo missed the obvious “Succession” question.
“Even if you haven’t watched succession the words ludicrously capacious were everywhere for months,” one fan tweeted.
“I’ve seen maybe two episodes of Succession and I knew that. It seemed very Succession-like lol,” another fan said.
“Mulaney and Kroll not having watched Succession…..be so ffr,” someone else wrote.
Another critic added, “The Succession question was not a Success. Nick and John made a Great Team though!”
This is the third season of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” featuring celebrity contestants. It’s timed to the 25th anniversary of the iconic game show, which was originally hosted by the late Regis Philibin.
According to Variety, the famous pairings this season are Mulaney and Kroll; Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell; Rosie O’Donnell and Lisa Ann Walter; John Stamos and Dave Coulier; Ray Romano and Brad Garrett; Zach Braff and Donald Faison; Lil Dicky and GaTa; Kelly and Jack Osbourne; Ike Barinholtz and Alan Barinholtz; Sebastian Maniscalco and Omar J. Dorsey; Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata; Sophia Bush and Alex Edelman; Gillian Jacobs and Danny Pudi; Natasha Leggero and Jason Ritter; Ron Funches and Reggie Watts; and Jeff Ross and “Cousin” Sal Iacono.
New episodes of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
