Duke Student No "Millionaire"
by Ross Weidner

A Duke student is counting his winnings after competing on a hit game show. For weeks, Jason Shapiro had to keep the details of his Who Wants to be a Millionaire prize a secret. But after his episode aired Friday, his $16,000 secret is out. Although Shapiro taped the show in January, he has been keeping the outcome quiet because of the show's rules.

Shapiro said that, because of his Jewish religious beliefs, he had no clue about the answer to his last question: "True Italian sausage from Bologna, Italy is called what?"

“I keep kosher, actually…they asked me about ham or sausage or whatever it was, so I asked the audience, and they had no clue,” said Shapiro. “And then I took the 50-50 [approach], and it made no difference. I actually would have ended up guessing right, but there was just no reason for that. It was just a coin flip in my head, so I figured it was probably best to take five figures home instead of risking it and going home with a thousand.”

Shapiro said he doesn't have plans for a big purchase. Instead, he plans to buy a few video games and put the rest of the money in savings.

The right answer, by the way, is “Mortadella.”