The following is a spoiler alert for anyone who may have TiVo’d and has yet to watch Becky Johnson Sabin’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” episodes.

Sabin’s two-day stint on the TV show, which aired Wednesday and Thursday, resulted in a $16,000 win.

Sabin, a 1988 Placer High graduate currently living in Sacramento, flew out to New York City in September with husband Greg to take her chance at winning a million dollars.

Sabin started in the hot seat on Wednesday’s show, and made it to the $1,000 question, according to a “Millionaire” publicist. Continuing as a holdover contestant for Thursday’s show, Sabin started with the $2,000 question with all four lifelines—”Ask The Audience,” “Double Dip,” “Ask The Expert” and Phone A Friend.”

Sabin said she experienced a bit of a brain block with the $25,000 question, “Seattle, Washington is located farther north than all but which of these Canadian cities?”

The possible answers were Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, according to a “Millionaire” publicist.

“For some reason that’s a mental block for me,” Sabin said Thursday of Canada. “I’ve no idea why — it just is.”

The wording of the question was another snag, Sabin said.

“The way they worded the question confused me a little bit and when you’re against the clock, really, you don’t have time to go, ‘What does that really mean?’” she said. “So I immediately asked the audience, and I thought that the percentages were too close for me to go definitively with what they had said, because all three of the wrong answers were equal, and the correct answer wasn’t a great enough percentage of the audience for me to be confident.”

The correct answer, Vancouver, received 42 percent of the audience vote, according to a “Millionaire” publicist, and the three incorrect answers received 19-20 percent each.

“So, I did my ‘Phone A Friend’ and ‘Ask The Expert,’ and I got three different answers from the three different lifelines I used, and I just wasn’t comfortable enough to risk it.”

Had Sabin guessed correctly, her winnings would have moved up to $25,000. Had she guessed wrong, she’d only go home with $1,000. Opting to walk away, she left the show $16,000 richer.

“I figured $16,000 was better than $1,000. It was not worth the risk for me to go on at that point,” Sabin said.

Sabin said her goal with going on the show was to make enough money to cover her trip to New York, and to have fun. Both goals were accomplished, she said.

And what of the money?

Sabin said she’d use her “Millionaire” winnings to pay off her car loan and cover some projects around the house. The remainder will be invested, she said.

The Journal’s Loryll Nicolaisen can be reached at lorylln@goldcountrymedia.com, or comment online at Auburnjournal.com.