Jeremy Clarkson apologises as player forced to leave

Host of ITV quiz Millionaire Hot Seat Jeremy Clarkson apologised to one player as they were forced to immediately leave the show after one question. The gameshow aired the sixth episode of the second series tonight (September 7) as six contestants put their general knowledge to the test in the hopes of becoming a millionaire. For those unaware, it is a spin-off of the popular Who Wants To Be A Millionaire but players are faced with a countdown clock that ticks down. Host Clarkson described it as much like the normal series but 'at double speed'. As a result there is no room for indecision as six players attempt to win big. There are 15 questions standing in the way of the contestants aiming for the ultimate jackpot and they have no lifelines available to them. Each successful answer takes them further up a scale starting at £100 before jumping up in increments all the way to the all-important one million figure. Each player is entitled to one pass, but if they use it they are taken off the hot seat and there is no guarantee they get to go back on it. If someone gets a question wrong, not only do they go home but the top run on the prize ladder is taken away. As a result it could become impossible for a player to bag the £1 million prize. Instead it shrinks to £250,000, then £100,000, then £50,000 and so on. On the most recent episode the latest players struggled early on as one by one each used their pass. One used it on the £500 question as they were unable to identify one phrase which was not a palindrome. As they used a pass, the subsequent player could not do so in turn, and had to answer their first question correctly. This was the undoing of retired GP Sanjay Sharma from Welwyn who was faced with a question he admitted would be a 'complete guess'. For £1,000, he was asked: "The Taylor Swift song The Fate of Ophelia is based on a characer from which Shakespeare play?" Sanjay immediately told himself: "It's going to be a complete guess here. I don't think it's Hamlet or Macbeth." Clarkson told him he was 'totally wrong' and added: "I'm so sorry Sanjay, the correct answer was Hamlet. That's a rotten bit of luck as we've only just met and now you have to go." It meant Sanjay was the first player eliminated after only attempting one question. Later, when it came to one of the later questions, Romanda from Solihull proved that they were perhaps not the most dedicated viewers of all of Clarkson's projects. The question for £20,000 asked: "Of these countries that border the Black Sea, which one is located at the eastern end of the sea?" Her options were A: Bulgaria, B: Georgia, C: Ukraine or D: Romania. Romanda went for Bulgaria but the answer was actually Georgia. The former Top Gear host told her: "Did you never see The Grand Tour, the show I did? We drove from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea - from Georgia to Azerbaijan but you weren't watching and now look what's happened." Millionaire Hot Seat airs weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.