Dan Blonsky etched his name in the television history books in 2000 when he became the second person to win one million dollars on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Now, 25 years later, he’s opening up about that iconic moment and how he spent his winnings.
In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Blonsky, a Florida-based attorney, said he never anticipated walking away with the $1 million prize. At 34 years old at the time and single, Blonsky headed onto the show with his mind set on $32,000 as his benchmark.
“I’d seen the show a few times, and I think I probably saw it when John [Carpenter, the show’s first-ever million-dollar winner] won. But I only did it really because I was like, ‘Wow, they’re giving away $32k,” he told the outlet.
“It was easy to get to that point [of the $32k question],” he continued. “I was like, ‘That’s enough money to embarrass yourself on TV,’ which is why I called them up, because normally it’s not something I would do.”
However, Blonsky far surpassed his own expectations, answering all of the host Regis Philbin‘s 15 questions correctly and walking away with the $1 million prize. He became only the second contestant to win the grand prize at a time when the show was the biggest thing on television.
“It was the peak of the show. There were, like, 30 million people who watched the night I was on it,” Blonsky shared. “Then it was two weeks or so before the Super Bowl, which was also on ABC. They had a clip of it during the Super Bowl. I mean, it just got a lot of attention. Not as much as John got because he was the first, but it was more than I would have expected as the second.”
As for what he did with his winnings, Blonsky revealed he put a lot of it into savings and investments. However, he did indulge in one major splurge shortly after winning.
“So for years, before and since the show, I go to Vegas every March with a group of friends of mine,” he explained. “On a trip [right after I won], this wasn’t necessarily me splurging that much, but Entertainment Tonight followed us around. The MGM put me in this ludicrous suite.”
He added, “I had said, ‘You should give me a Rain Man suite.’ It was even better than the Rain Man suite. And [chef] Emeril Lagasse made us dinner. The dinner, ET paid for part of it, but it was like 15 of us or whatever, and I paid for the overage.”
“That was my big splurge is I paid for Emeril’s dinner,” Blonsky stated. “But for the most part, it didn’t really change what I was doing.”
He said he even received criticism after picking up a “cheap” replacement watch after his broke shortly after his episode aired. “There was something in one of those newspapers. Somehow, that got in the media. I don’t know why,” he recalled. “And they criticized me for buying such a cheap watch.”
Blonsky returned to Millionaire a few months after his first appearance, competing on the Champions Edition for charity. This time, he missed out on the $32,000 question, but still walked away with $1,000 for the Miami Bridge Youth and Family Services.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Wednesdays, 8/7c, ABC