What happened after Millionaire Hot Seat contestant won $1 million

Melbourne man Antony McManus won the top prize on Millionaire Hot Seat Thursday night, but what happened after filming stopped was equally surprising.

Melbourne man Antony McManus has become only the second person to win $1 million on Channel 9’s Millionaire Hot Seat.

The 57-year-old blitzed all the questions thrown at him by Eddie McGuire on Thursday night’s episode, managing to correctly guess the very final question to take home the grand cash prize.

Confetti exploded onstage as a genuinely shocked McManus was handed a bottle of champagne and a big fat cheque.

But what happened after cameras stopped rolling?

McManus told news.com.au podcast host Andrew Bucklow on I’ve Got News For You that he had to make his own way home from the venue in Melbourne, before finding himself standing on the sidewalk with a bottle of champagne and $1 million in his pocket.

“It was crazy. I won the million dollars. And they (producers) were saying to me, ‘Are you OK to get home?’ And I’m going ‘Yeah, I’ll be fine’. And all of a sudden, I was standing out in the street with a bottle of champagne in my hand. What the hell has happened?,” he said.

Antony McManus became the second person to win a million dollars on Millionaire Hot Seat. Picture: Channel 9

Still recovering from shock, McManus said he didn’t call his completely unaware husband Ron on the way home to tell him the good news.

“I came in and he said to me, ‘How did you go?’ And I actually was busting so I went to the toilet, and he didn’t even notice that I had a bottle of champagne in my hand,” McManus said.

“And then I came out and he said, ‘How did you go?’ And I said, ‘Well, I won ‘fastest finger first’ so I’ve got this cheque for $1000,” he added, referencing the game show’s opening quiz.

“And then I said, ‘Well, I just kept answering questions. Then they gave me this cheque.’ And then I showed him the million dollar cheque.

“He was like, I won’t say exactly the word, but it took about five minutes for him to be convinced. I had to show him a text from Channel 9 saying congratulations, I hope you’ve got home safely, and then he actually believed me.”

McManus revealed he hasn’t yet been paid by the Network despite having filmed the episode back in May, adding that the money is generally processed 28 days after the episode airs.

Antony said his husband took "five minutes of convincing".

But he’s already bought an apartment with his new found wealth, as well as a modest new car.

“We bought a beautiful apartment, which we’ll move into next year,” he said.

“And I bought a new car. I’ve never had a new car because what sort of car did you get? I bought a Toyota Corolla hybrid. Nothing too crazy. I didn’t want to go too crazy with it.

“There’s still enough on the table for us to invest in and look after our futures.”

The final question saw McManus asked, “Which of these classic literary works was published first?”, with the multiple choice answers including The Count of Monte Cristo, A Tale of Two Cities, War and Peace and Les Misérables.

He admitted his answer – The Count of Monte Cristo – was a complete gamble.

“It was kind of a guess. I wasn’t completely sure of the answer,” he said.

“But what I did was knock out the ones that I was pretty sure were not the answer. Eddie often says that that’s the way to play the game. So I thought that’s the way to do it.

“But to be honest, I wasn’t 100 per cent sure of the answer. So there was a lot of luck involved as well.”