Omaha man sizzles in 'Millionaire' hot seat
BY BRIAN CARLSON
OMAHA - Decisively answer
ing questions about Volkswagens,
the Bible and global warming,
Omahan Eric Buske walked away
with a cool quarter-million on
Sunday night.
Buske, a narcotics officer for
the Omaha Police Department
and father of UNL sophomore
biochemistry major Kim Buske,
won $250,000 on the episode of
ABC’s "Who Wants to be a
Millionaire?” that aired Sunday
night
Eric Buske invited dozens of
family members and friends to his
house on Sunday night to watch.
Before the show aired, he and his
wife shared the results only with
his five children, and none of the
Buskes were giving anything away.
But in a due that he probably
hauled some cash back to Omaha,
he bought a new big-screen TV for
die party.
One person who crashed the
party was Omaha Mayor Hal
Daub.
“I’m in awe, let me tell you,”
Daub gushed. “This is better than
the College World Series for
Omaha."
After Eric Buske qualified for
the show through a call-in
process, he and his wife, Deb,
received an all-expense-paid trip
to New York City, where the show
was taped on Oct 5.
“When we went out there, we
went with the attitude that the trip
to New York was great and any
thing else was gravy," Eric Buske
said.
Eric Buske won $250,000 by
answering the question of which
U.S. president was the first target
of an assassination attempt:
Andrew Jackson or Abraham
Lincoln. It was Jackson.
He then faced a question for
$500,000: "Murdered in 1995,
zoologist Dian Fossey was buried
with more than a dozen of her
gorillas in what country?
“A. Tanzania. B. Burundi. C.
Uganda. D. Rwanda.”
Eric Buske said he was "90 per
cent sure” the answer was
Rwanda, but he had already used
his lifelines.
He decided to walk away from
the hot seat, pocketing the
$250,000. Had he answered incor
rectly, his winnings would have
fallen back to $32,000.
Rwanda was the right answer,
it turned out.
“When you’re watching the
show on TV it’s easy to say, ‘Go for
it,'" he said. “The question on my
mind was, ‘Am I $218,000 sure?’
That’s an easy decision to make
when there’s real money on the
line.”
Eric Buske, who answered
most of the questions quickly and
• confidently, said none of them
totally stumped him. But he used
all his lifelines to reassure himself.
After he stepped into the hot
seat, he cruised through several
easy questions.
Later, he used an audience
sampling to confirm that Las
Vegas has more hotel rooms than
any other U.S. city. Then he elimi
nated half the answers on the
question about the first presiden
tial assassination attempt
Asked which author wrote a
series about the “87^ Precinct,”
Eric Buske called Sgt. Kirby
Warren, who provided him with
the correct answer Ed McBain.
"Good luck, baby,” Warren
said after he gave Eric Buske the
answer.
The crowd at the Buske’s home
erupted in laughter at that com
ment. Kim Buske also was one of
her father’s possible lifelines. On
Oct. 5, when the show was taped,
she sat in her room in Neihardt
Residence Center awaiting a call
from her father. She said she was
n’t upset he didn’t call her.
"No, I was so nervous, I don’t
think I could have answered any
question,” she said.
Eric Buske emerged from a
field of 10 studio contestants to
win a spot on the “hot seat” with
host Regis Philbin. He did so by
being the fastest to put a list of
singers in the order of their birth.
"I love to get you guys in that
chair,” Philbin said. “I like guys
from Nebraska.”
Philbin, a Notre Dame gradu
ate and Fighting Irish football fan,
also discussed Nebraska’s dramat
ic 27-24 overtime victory over
Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.,
on Sept 9. Eric Buske was there.
“Everyone in Nebraska went,
didn’t they?” Philbin said. “Boy,
they took over that stadium.
“They scared you to death,
didn’t they?” Philbin said of the
Fighting Irish.
“I don’t know about that,” Eric
Buske said.
The camera showed Deb
Buske, who was in the studio for
the taping. Eric Buske also talked
about his 13-year-old son, Eric,
who was diagnosed with leukemia
but has been off chemotherapy for
about two years. On Sunday night,
the Buske household shook with
cheers and laughter as Eric Buske
rolled through 13 correct answers.
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“Isn't this cool?" Kim Buske
said.
“It’s very difficult to perceive
that it’s real, even now,” her moth
er, Deb, said.
Eric Buske said he isn’t exactly
sure how he’ll use the money. He
plans to buy a motorcycle, and he
wants to take a vacation. With five
children, he probably will use
some of it for tuition, he said.
"All in all, it was a very positive
experience,” he said. “Even if I
hadn’t gotten in the hot seat, I had
no complaints.”
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