Boys spill beans about Millionaire gig during MuchMusic talk-fest
Source: Toronto Sun
By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun
TORONTO -- Call them the slow-fingered Boys. Or possibly trivia-challenged.
Backstreet Boys Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough appear on two upcoming "rock star" episodes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire -- airing Sunday night and one week from tonight -- but neither got to actually vie for the big bucks for their respective charities.
"We didn't get in the hot seat," Richardson let slip during an hour-long, live chat at MuchMusic last night with his four bandmates prior to the group's sold-out show tonight at SkyDome.
"I would have got in the hot seat if I was there," joked Nick Carter, who was originally going to be a Millionaire contestant but was called away to join his younger brother, Aaron, for a Disney special in Orlando, Fla.
"We actually drew Q-Tips and french fries to be in the hot seat," explained Dorough.
Normally Millionaire contestants, whose round to get into the much-desired hot seat is answered with a finger-controlled remote, are told to keep quiet about their tapings of the Regis Philbin-hosted show until the episodes are broadcast.
But Richardson made the admission last night after a fan, one of hundreds wielding stuffed animals and cameras on the street outside MuchMusic, asked why he subbed for Carter at the last minute.
Hey, it's not like they're perfect.
When the Boys were queried by a fan in the studio about what they "sucked at," four of the five admitted their weaknesses.
It ranged from basketball for Dorough to Monopoly for Carter.
But it was Richardson's blab about Millionaire that was probably the most interesting thing about the Boys visit to MuchMusic, which was dominated by lots of high-pitched screams and a station giveaway of two front row tickets to their Black & Blue show at SkyDome. (Eventually the group generously donated tickets to the four other qualifiers in the Backstreet trivia contest.)
Needless to say, while it all appeared to be enormously exciting for those on the front lines, it didn't exactly make for rivetting TV.
One e-mailer wanted to know if the group's five members were stranded on a desert island would they eat each other and, if so, who would be first?
The Boys all immediately looked at Carter, the biggest Backstreeter of the bunch.
"First of all, I don't know if we could eat each other man, I really don't think we could," said Carter. "I think we'd all have to die. I mean I know I wouldn't. If y'all ate me, I'd be mad."
Added A.J. McLean, the skinniest member: "They could use me as a toothpick once they're done eating someone else."
The visit by the Boys to MuchMusic prompted fans to begin camping outside the studio three days ago.
"I think it's pretty incredible that people have been waiting out here in the cold for three days," Richardson commented. "Not that we want you to do that all the time. It's nice but we don't want you to freeze to death."
The group's SkyDome show, where 55,000 fans are expected tonight, sold out in 75 minutes. There is a chance the Backstreet Boys might return sometime between July and September when they will perform a second leg of North American dates in stadiums.
Their world tour will see the Backstreet Boys perform 110 dates in 11 months and Carter says the bond between them has never been stronger.
"It's tighter than ever, honestly," he said. "We're going on eight years right now. You know, me and (Backstreet Boy) Brian (Littrell), we just talked about it. We've gone on this long and we just want to keep going. We want to be one of the longest groups of our kind to ever last. That's what we want to do."
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