After winning the 1,816,000 euros from the Pass word, in the special program broadcast this Wednesday night on Antena 3, Óscar Díaz has become a legend of television contests in Spain. In addition to being one of the few to win a prize of such magnitude at Rosco, the Madrid native is part of the even more select group of people who have survived 200 broadcasts in To know and to win.
In the case of Pass word, where he already participated in previous stages of the very long-running contest, has surpassed his rival for 154 deliveries, Moisés Laguardia. But, as Díaz explained to this newspaper on Thursday morning, after his victory was broadcast, “the challenge to win the jackpot is not so much to beat the other contestant as to beat the scriptwriters who select the words.”
For example, Fahrenkamp, the word that gave him that millionaire prize. This is the surname of the prominent German architect of the interwar period of the 20th century, named Emil. The statement that he had written the program gave as a clue that he designed the Villa Wenhold, in the city of Bremen. “Among all the things that I have been preparing during these months, I made a list of architects from the 19th and 20th centuries. They are names that you don’t know because you have general knowledge. You have to be able to answer very specialized questions to win an award like this,” says the new magnificent of Pass wordas they would call him in the other contest in which he has reigned, that of Jordi Hurtado in La 2.
In his case, he comments, the preparation was joined by a matter of luck. “I took down Fahrenkamp’s name because of one of his buildings in Berlin, but in the question they mentioned Bremen. Since it was also Germany, I played Ockham’s razor [el principio filosófico que recuerda que, en igualdad de condiciones, la explicación más simple suele ser la más probable]. I might not have been a German architect, but I took a gamble and got it right. In many of the questions that we failed, we used that same method,” comments this human encyclopedia.
The Rosco is so varied in themes that it is impossible for a contestant to master all of them and be able to complete it using their own knowledge. That is where the “cat and mouse game” of the long-term contestants with the scriptwriters of the Atresmedia program begins. “The level of demand of the contest is becoming higher and higher. The team in charge of writing the questions no longer only designs questions that are of a very specific niche, but also tries to disguise their choice patterns. And the scriptwriters almost always win,” admits the 52-year-old from Madrid.
In the case of an opposition, the agenda is closed, no matter how extensive it may be. In it Pass word current, whose syllabus is infinite, the challenge is to guess which questions are going to fall on the exam.
For example, to try to get ahead of the program, if in one installment the presenter Roberto Leal asked about the birthplace of a president of the United States, the next day Óscar Díaz would add the list of the rest of the American leaders to his database. It didn’t include everyone. I was eliminating cities whose name is more than one word (because Rosco only allows one-word answers), those that begin with W (which is not used in the final test) or those that begin from A to C (which As it is the start of the test, it does not usually include this type of questions), explains the contestant, an expert in detecting trends in the main challenge of Pass word. “In the end, it’s not a list of more than 20 or 25 answers,” she says.
His obsession with finding those patterns, which has led him to win the jackpot, has reached the point of researching things like the filmography of the actresses who appeared in the original series of Charlie’s Angels because one day they asked him about a Cheryl Ladd movie, and 20 broadcasts before, they asked him about a Kate Jackson series. Just in case the scriptwriters spent an afternoon feeding their questionnaire with the professional profiles of these actresses, Díaz made a list of the one-word titles of her career and those of her co-stars, Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith. . “You do it just in case. The vast majority of the time it only serves to expand that database,” she admits, without forgetting to review the dictionary, geography and history.
The Madrid native has beaten Moisés Laguardia by completing the 25 questions of the final test of the contest before his opponent. “What made him most dangerous is how methodical and orderly he is. He is a great student of the program, but he is also a fan as a viewer. That is why it has been much easier for him than others to prepare to compete in it,” says Díaz.
Historical in Spanish competitions
Although it has already appeared in To know and to win and even in Boom, also in the afternoons of Antena 3, the contestant explains that he has appeared in all the programs in which he has participated. And that, although those responsible for casting others quiz shows They have invited him to take the tests to compete in them, he has only appeared in the selection tests of those that he had chosen of his own free will. He was also in Ciphers and letters, when it was broadcast on regional channels. And, despite the success that the space is having in his new life in La 2, he prefers to stay “for charity bullfights,” he says, apologizing for the bullfighting simile. “If they take me as a guest on a program I go, but as a long-term contestant I no longer see myself,” he admits.
Definitely, Pass word, the most watched entertainment program on current television in Spain, is the one that has given him the most popularity of all he has been on. This Wednesday’s special, which began at eight in the afternoon, at its usual time, attracted an average of 1.9 million viewers on average and a 20.5% screen share, a somewhat higher result usual. After the evening news, The anthill received the duelists, reaching its season high of 21.9% Compartir and almost 3 million viewers on average. And the special prime-time program in which Óscar Díaz won the jackpot was watched by an average of 3,243,000 viewers and 30.1%, becoming the second most watched non-sports broadcast of the year.
With the boat Pass word, Díaz plans to delve into his passion for collecting original comics. And he also wants to take a trip to Washington to tour all the Smithsonian Institution museums in the city, and thus feed that database that he keeps in his head. He also has no problem with an important part of the prize going to the Treasury. Although his previous stint in other competitions brought him an extra 20,000 euros a year after taxes, this week’s gross prize of 1.8 million euros will change things somewhat. “The fact that the apartment my wife and I moved into last year is completely ours and not the bank’s is a satisfaction, after renting it all our life. The way the patio is, it is a joy. I’m going to allow myself the luxury that, unfortunately, not many Spaniards have,” he celebrates.
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