Patrick Gibson is an Irish quizzer. On 24 April 2004 he became the fourth contestant to win the £1m jackpot on the quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. He is a multiple world champion in quizzing and one of the world's most successful quiz players. He is best known for winning several quiz shows and being a panellist on Eggheads. He was born, raised and educated in Ireland but currently lives in the United Kingdom and competes as part of the England quiz team. As of 5 December 2018, Gibson is currently the No. 1 ranked quizzer in the world.
On his one million pound question, he still had his 50:50 and phone a friend. The question was "Which of these is not one of the American Triple Crown horse races?" Gibson used the 50:50 first, where B. "Belmont Stakes" and D. "Preakness Stakes" disappeared. He then used his phone-a-friend option, phoning Mark Kerr who said he was 90% sure the answer was Arlington Million, which was Pat's original instinct. Interestingly, Gibson had acted as Kerr's phone-a-friend during his appearance on the show during the same series, broadcast weeks before Gibson's success. He was the only person in the United Kingdom to reach the one million pound question with two lifelines remaining. He correctly answered 'Arlington Million' to win £1 million.
Complete run to the million
These are the questions Pat faced to win £1,000,000. Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15
On 25 December 2006 he won the highly prestigious BBC Radio 4 quiz show Brain of Britain, becoming only the fourth person after Roger Pritchard, Kevin Ashman and Chris Hughes to win both that and Mastermind. In 2008 he finished third in BBC Radio 4's Brain of Brains, behind Egghead Chris Hughes and the eventual winner, 2008 World Quizzing Champion Mark Bytheway.
''Eggheads'' and ''Are You an Egghead?''
Gibson competed in both the first and second series of Are You an Egghead?, a series seeking a new panellist to join the resident team on the BBC Two / 12 Yard quiz show Eggheads. In the first series, he was beaten in the quarter-finals by friend Mark Kerr. He returned for the second series in 2009, and won the final broadcast on 23 November 2009, beating fellow Mastermind and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? winner David Edwards and thereby claiming a place on the Eggheads team.
National and international quizzing championships
He has amassed 25 international medals, the second highest total ever and is ranked the second strongest player in the World/Europe. In 2007 Gibson won the IQA World Quizzing Championship. In pairs competitions he partners Ian Bayley and they have won the British and European titles. In 2010 Gibson won the IQA World Quizzing Championship achieving an all-time high score of 180/210, defeating both Kevin Ashman and Belgian Ronny Swiggers who tied at 169/210. In the 2010 EQC Gibson had the highest accumulated score in terms of the number of correct answers, and would have won the Singles title with a normal scoring system of 1 point for each correct answer, as he had 2 more than the eventual winner, Olav Bjortomt. Gibson retained the World Quizzing Championship title in 2011 with a score of 186/210, a 10-point margin over Kevin Ashman, and won again in 2013 with a score of 172/210. Despite being originally from Ireland, Gibson competes for the England team.
Domestic competition
Pat plays in the Summer in the Orrell and District League for the Millstone team and in the winter in the Ormskirk league for Collywobblers.
