David Poltorak was a Sale of the Century

Sale of the Century

Sale of the Century is a television game show format that has been screened in several countries in various incarnations since 1969. The show found its biggest success in Australia, where it aired weeknights from 1980 to 2001...

grand champion in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in 1986. In his eight episodes, he won a grand total of A$376,200, including $244,000 in cash and $132,200 in prizes. At the time, this total was a world record for winnings on a television game show.

Poltorak holds three records for Australian Sale:

• Highest number of questions answered correctly in one episode: 35 out of 55.
• Highest winning score: $200.
• Most number of questions answered correctly in 60 second fast money: 16.

(All of these records were achieved on Poltorak's last night as champ on episode number 1443.)

In 1991, Poltorak replaced Fran Powell as question writer/adjudicator for Sale and held the position until the show's end in 2001. He then became (and still is) the lead compiler of questions for Australian Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers large cash prizes for correctly answering a series of multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The format is owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television International. The maximum cash prize is one million pounds...

.