Every contestant who gets on the hot seat has a chance to answer the 15 multiple-choice questions. Each question has a corresponding cash amount tied to it. The cash prize gets bigger as the contestant answers more questions correctly. By the time the contestant has answered 15 consecutive questions correctly, he will win N50000. If the running time of the programme expires while a contestant is playing ,he/she is invited to return on the next recording to continue. Once having been in the hotseat, the contestant can never return to it in the "normal" programme.
Safe Havens:
There are 2 of them – one at Question 5 and the other at Question 10. If the contestant gets any of the questions from 6-9 wrong, his/her winning drops to the previous safe haven which is at question 5 for N20,000. If the contestant gets any of the questions from 11-15 wrong, his/her winnings drop to the last safe haven which is at question 10 for N250,000.
The lifelines
During the game, if the hot seat contestant gets stuck and is not sure of the answer, he can get assistance by using one of three available lifelines. The contestant can use one, two or all three “lifelines” at any time during the course of his play. The contestant can only use each lifeline once, but is not obliged to answer a question even if he has used one or more lifelines.
The lifelines are: "Fifty-Fifty", "Ask the Audience" and "Phone a Friend".
"Fifty-Fifty" - Two answers are eliminated leaving the correct answer and one incorrect answer.
"Phone-A-Friend" - The contestant is allowed to talk on the telephone to one of up to five pre-arranged friends and ask their advice as to the correct answer to a question. The phoned friends do not know the question in advance and are only told by the contestant once the host allows him to do so. He has thirty seconds to read the question out to the friend and obtain his advice.
"Ask the Audience" - Each member of the audience is equipped with a key pad with the letters A, B, C & D on it. When requested, they press the button within fifteen seconds to indicate their opinion. No matter how many members of the audience press their keypad (and often some do not register their opinion on time) the computer always displays the results as a percentage.