I'd like to Ask the Audience, Meredith.

Ask the Audience is Meredith's favorite lifeline. But, exactly how good is it? I've taken some time to look at results of some ATA questions (currently 100, but I'll update as I put in more), and see just how trustworthy the audience is...

*Disclaimers: This info is taken from the WWTBAM Bored archive. Accuracy of data is not guaranteed. Data is currently from either Classic or Clock formats; results from the current Shuffle format of Millionaire have not been included yet. Celebrity or other themed episodes are not included in data.

*Note 1: When referring to categories, questions may be categorized under the following: Animals, Current Events, Food & Drink, Geography (actual geography as well as the cultures of different peoples), History, Idioms & Phrases, Literature, Movies, Music, Other, Pop Culture (Other), Science, Sports, Television, and Words (definitions, spelling, etc.).
*Note 2: When referring to a "Close 2nd, 3rd, or 4th" answer, a percentage of the audience must vote an answer so that it receives at least half the votes of the most-voted (but not necessarily correct) answer. EXAMPLE: If the highest-voted answer has 62% of the audience, and another answer gets 31% or higher, that answer is a "Close 2nd". However, if it gets 30% or lower, it is not.

GENERAL STATISTICS
1. 25% of contestants use their Ask the Audience lifeline on question 8. 18% use it on question 7, and 15% use it on question 9. Only 5% use it at any time during the third tier.
2. Contestants most often use their ATA lifeline on Science or Words questions (12% each), with Geography and History questions just behind that (11% each). However, when all Pop Culture categories are combined (Movies, Music, Other Pop Culture, and Television), the total is 20%.
3. Regardless of category or value, the highest-voted answer from the audience is correct 91% of the time. A majority of the audience votes the correct answer 82% of the time.
4. 23% of ATA's have an answer that is a close 2nd, 4% have a close 3rd answer, and 1% have a close 4th.

VALUE-RELATED STATISTICS
The following table groups question by level of difficulty, not by category.

Level - Level of difficulty.
Questions - Number of questions that have been used to come up with the statistics.
Avg. Correct - The average percentage of the audience that votes the correct answer.
% Correct - The percentage of questions for which the most-voted answer by the audience is the correct answr.
% Majority - The percentage of questions for which the majority of the audience votes the correct answer.
% Close 2nd, etc. - The percentage of questions for which there is a close 2nd answer, etc.

Obviously, for the lower and higher tiers there are less instances of Ask the Audience being used, so the numbers aren't necessarily accurate. Here's another interesting tidbit: when the correct answer isn't the majority vote (18% of the time), the most-voted answer by the audience is correct only half the time.

CATEGORY-RELATED STATISTICS
In this section is a table for each category, of which there are fifteen. Get ready for a whole lotta tables...

*NOTE: There are less questions for each table here. The "Total" row in each table may be more accurate than the individual rows for certain question levels.

Category: Animals


Category: Current Events


Category: Food & Drink


Category: Geography


Category: History


Category: Idioms & Phrases


Category: Literature


Category: Movies


Category: Music


Category: Other


Category: Pop Culture (Other)


Category: Science


Category: Sports


Category: Television


Category: Words


NOTE: More questions will eventually be used as I update; currently there are 100.