2011 Salute of Champions: #20-16

#20: Billie Johnston ("WWTBAM")

Billie made her first "Millionaire" appearance at the end of the April 27th episode, accumulating $16K through her first three questions. Early on during the Apr. 28th show, she used her first Jump the Question on Question #5, which held $25K. On Question #9, using Ask the Audience, she correctly agreed w/ 73% of the studio audience that AOL's the technology company that features the "Running Man" mascot to bank another two grand & have $43,100 at the time. In order to ensure that she made Classic Millionaire, she jumped the final Round 1 Q worth $500. After coming up w/ Super Mario's former name of Jumpman from "Donkey Kong" to reach the $100K mark, she faced this $250K Q:

Which of these pairs of Native American tribes share their names w/ horses that have won the Kentucky Derby?

A: Omaha & Spokane
B: Kiowa & Narragansett
C: Choctaw & Hopi
D: Mohawk & Zuni

Since she was sure about Omaha, she chose A & left as a quarter-millionaire. The $500K Q:

Who was the only person besides John Hancock to sign The Declaration of Independence on Jul. 4, 1776?

A: Abraham Clark
B: Charles Thomson
C: Lewis Morris
D: George Clymer

Her wild guess of Thomson would've made her the first player to see the Million Dollar Question in the current "Millionaire" format.

#19: John Rhode ("The Biggest Loser")

The season John competed on was titled the "Battle of the Ages" last Fall. He started out as the second-heaviest person of the season at 445 lbs. behind Antone Davis, who weighed in at 447 lbs. In each of the first nine Weigh-Ins, he lost at least nine pounds (in eight of them, he lost at least 10). He never got an elimination vote cast against him the whole season & was TBL the last two weeks on the ranch; that was a good omen in him winning the $250K over Antone, 49.44%-45.19%. Incidentally, all three finalists that season were male (a first).

#18: Olivia Ward ("The Biggest Loser")

When she first appeared on TV to start off '11, she weighed in at 261 lbs. She gained immunity back-to-back twice during the season- Feb. 1st (when her team was part of The Underdogs & the whole group needed to have lost at least 49 pounds) & Feb. 8th (as TBL on the Black Team, even though they won the W-I) and Apr. 19th (when she won a riverboarding challenge down a New Zealand river) & 26th (when she was TBL). She got her first elimination vote from Marci Crozier on Mar. 8. The latter back-to-back immunity occasion may have came at a good time for Olivia, as the week before on Apr. 12th, she got two votes cast against her while the cast was in Auckland. In the end, she defeated her teammate Hannah Curlee by two lbs., 49.42%-48.39%, to win that big cash prize; also, this was the first time where all three finalists were women.

#17: J.R. Martinez & Karina Smirnoff ("Dancing with the Stars")

The most recent couple to win, they started out Season 13 leading half the judges' leaderboards from the first six weeks (Week #1, Week #5 & Week #6; on the last of those times, they were tied for the lead w/ Ricki Lake & Derek Hough, who wound up finishing the competition in third place). Two weeks later, though, they finished a two-dance week in second-to-last place, but rebounded w/ a perfect two-dance week right after that. They finished in third place in the semi-finals & were the last couple called safe, resulting in the elimination of Hope Solo & Maksim Chermovskiy. J.R. & Karina actually finished the finale one point behind Rob Kardashian & Cheryl Burke, 113-112, but the viewers were mostly on J.R. & Karina's side, giving them the Mirror Ball Trophy.

#16: Melanie Moore ("So You Think You Can Dance")

In their last season with the results show (at least for now), Melanie was never in the Danger Zone en route to her $250K win.