Another variable is the subject matter of the question. Anecdotally, it feels that the audience almost invariably nails the answer by a wide margin on pop cult

Another variable is the subject matter of the question. Anecdotally, it feels that the audience almost invariably nails the answer by a wide margin on pop culture questions. On questions of a scientific or technical nature, the audience opinion is much less clear and more often actually wrong. Phone those questions to a domain knowledge expert. About the worst thing you can do, but contestants love doing this, is to burn the valuable audience lifeline early on a question when you already have a good sense of the answer but just want to "make sure". What a waste! Save that for a question when you have no clue, which WILL happen before you reach the million level.