‘Money Drop’ contestant Gabe Okoye ‘distraught,’ ‘haunted’ over not-wrong answer

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Gabe Okoye, one of the ‘Million Dollar Money Drop’ contestants who lost $800,000 on the show’s premiere after giving what would turn out to be a correct answer, has been ‘haunted’ by and ‘distraught’ over the moment.

Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, Okoye, 25, and girlfriend Brittany Mayti, 23, described how the agony of losing the cash at the September taping was even worse than it looked when the show aired Dec. 20.

‘I was haunted for a long time between the taping and the actual airing. I was distraught,’ Okoye told THR. ‘I’d like to know someone who has lost money like that and just smiled about it.’ Mayti, he said, supported him the whole time after the loss, even after he’d talked her into betting on his answer.

‘Money Drop’ contestants start with $1 million and must work as a team to wager the cash on the answers to seven questions. If they answer seven questions correctly, any money that was placed on those correct answers is theirs to keep. The question, which hinged on when Post-it Notes went on the market, wasn’t the final one for the couple, who lost their remaining $80,000 on the next query. ‘They never had a chance to win that money. Ever. No matter what,’ said host Kevin Pollak, who also told THR he hasn’t enjoyed the controversy. ‘They got the last question wrong. This story is a moot point.’

Still, just before Christmas -- citing ‘incomplete’ information that didn’t include the sticky notes being test-marketed three years earlier than their launch under the Post-It name -- the show’s producers invited the couple to return to the show to compete again.

‘Now he’s like, ‘I’m glad you were supportive since it turns out I was right,’’ Mayti told THR, laughing. ‘If I had been mad at him, I would be looking not good now.’

Personally, we love that Okoye knew so much about the history of 3M’s Post-it Note -- because it’s a pretty cool story involving creative work the company allowed to be done on company time.

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-- Christie D’Zurilla