And behind Door Number 3, you’ll see that you just won a brand new car! We can’t wait to send you home with your prize! Just remember that first you’ll have to pay taxes on it, buy car insurance, pay for gas and figure out a way to transport it all the way back to your home state. Congratulations!
Game shows have been a television staple for decades, but have you ever considered what it’s actually like to win one? Well, lucky for us, plenty of former game show contestants have detailed their experiences online, so we don’t have to go on The Price Is Right to understand what it’s like. Below, you’ll find info about the money awarded, the downsides of the prizes, and how the experience impacted participants’ lives, as well as interviews with game show champions Stephen Hall and Cory Anotado. Enjoy getting a glimpse into the wild world of game shows, and be sure to upvote the stories that make you want to audition for Jeopardy!Read More: 30 People Share What Happened With Their Prizes After Winning A Game Show
#1
My high school drama and speech teacher was the “friend” someone called for a “phone a friend” option on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? back when Regis was still the host. The guy who called him shared a portion of the money with my teacher, like 20-30k and and my teacher used the money to adopt a baby
Image credits: GreenLigh
#2
I won $125,000 on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire about 20 years ago. After taxes, I still had about $80,000. I paid my car off, got a computer, was able to quit a full-time job I hated and take a more enjoyable part-time job, and went to college. Now I work at a job I love that I wouldn’t have if I never got a college education. RIP Regis.
Image credits: lavenderincense
#3
This will get buried but I won Wheel of Fortune 2 years ago. I won $67,000. After taxes it ended up being about $52,000. I paid off all my debt, went to Disney, bought some new furniture for the house and paid cash for a car. Still have about 20k sitting in savings. It was absolutely phenomenal. It had always been my dream and I still can’t believe it happened.
Image credits: hrmhrh
#4
I won a few thousand on Jeopardy a few years ago. It allowed my wife and I to finally go on a honeymoon two years after getting married. Maybe not life-changing on a grand scale, but definitely made our lives a bit better.
Image credits: whiskeyalfredo
#5
I was on a kids game show in the late 80s with my brother. We won, but lost the grand prize (trip to Disneyland) in the bonus round, and were given a $500 gift certificate to a toy store instead. $250 each for a toy store was absolutely incredible for a couple of kids, especially in the 80s. I still remember that shopping trip.
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#6
When I was 10 I correctly guessed the weight of a pumpkin and won a packet of giant cabbage seeds. I never got round to planting them. Life has been downhill ever since that peak.
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#7
I won the showcase on the price is right. It was the spring break episode so it was only college students. It was my senior year of college. Winning a new car and a bunch of other stuff made the last semester of college awesome. It’s s been 9.5 years and I still drive the car. So I guess it’s changed my life in that I’ve never had car payments.
Image credits: Fluxmuster
#8
I was on Wheel of Fortune in 2017 and won the bonus round. I ended up with $46,200 and a trip to Cuba. After taxes I made close to $30,000 and the trip was amazing. I was on for Teachers Week and am still treated as the local celebrity around school. Vanna was a doll and Pat is what you would expect.
Image credits: radioflyerrr
#9
Not me, but my parents were on the “Newlywed Game” in the early 80s and won!
I guess beforehand, there was a list of items they were given and they were supposed to pick 3 of the prize items and put them in order of their 1st choice down to their 3rd. They had just moved into their first house and really needed a washer and dryer, so they put that first (and assumed that’s what they would end up with if they won), and for the 3rd choice they put a new pop-up tent trailer with camping supplies (something my mom definitely did NOT want lol)
Wellllll… they ended up with the pop-up tent trailer and camping supplies. On the video you can see my mom visibly upset they didn’t get the washer and dryer hahaha poor mom.
Anyway, they didn’t receive their prize until their episode aired and they had to go pick it up themselves down in Los Angeles or pay a hefty price to have the prize delivered (they chose to pick it up themselves). They then incurred costs to upgrade my mom’s car to an SUV with a tow hitch for the trailer.
All in all, it ended up being a great prize because they kept it for 12 years, which included the first 8 years of my life. We took a lot of great family camping trips in that little trailer with some amazing memories made. My mom didn’t totally hate it, but she eventually made my dad sell it and upgrade to a bigger trailer with it’s own bathroom and shower haha
Image credits: Smoky-The-Beer
#10
I won the top prize ($500) on a quiz show called Inquizition. This was around 1999. The check arrived right before my car registration was due, which was helpful because I had just lost my job.
Image credits: froglover215
#11
My brother won $15,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2009. It’s funny ’cause we were both on the show in November (I was in the audience), but we didn’t get the check until February. Then, we got a letter from “The Executives of ABC” or some arbitrary name like that with a check for 15-large. Since my brother and I were only used to cashing our checks at check-cashing places, that’s exactly where we brought it. They charged us $100 and we got $14,900 in 100s, 50s, and 20s.
As soon as we got home, my brother dumped all the money on the bed and rolled around in it. Quite possibly one of the only times in my life where I’ll be able to do that with that much money. We also blew like $2000 at the mall, just like dumb kids.
Image credits: MandrewCarrion
#12
One of my parents won £500,000 on a game show in 2012. Before this parent went on the show we had been served an eviction notice from the rented house we were in; needless to say they bought a lovely house and it was the first time I ever had a nice bedroom to decorate. Being on the property ladder changed their lives drastically and now they’ve moved to the upside down place (from the UK) and they’re living their best life.
Edit: for people getting asking about the pronouns it was a protection of identity is all.
The show was called red or black. It was cancelled not long after
Yes I meant Australia, no it wasn’t bought; they had to prove their societal worth
Image credits: greengiantsbaby
#13
A friend of mine won one of the last episodes aired of The Weakest Link. It was an episode where they were supposed to be look alikes of the host😂 she won 100k! She was wanting to be able to stay home with her kids and this allowed her to do that. She homeschools her six kids now and is just such a happy, sweet lady!
Image credits: ChickenMathisReal
#14
My brother was on pyramid in 77 or 78, he got a lifetime of rice a roni. It was a case of like 48 boxes every year for like 3 years. We got a letter that the show was going off air and out of the rice a roni business. Cut us right off.
P.S. my wife said it was a show called $25000 dollar pyramid.
Image credits: c3h8pro
#15
I was on “Let’s Make a Deal” in 2016 and I won a new car. It was actually perfect timing because my old car was on its last legs and I had started saving for a new one, then I won a new one and the money I had saved paid the fees and stuff.
I won the car in August but didn’t actually get it until November when the episode aired, but they drove it to my apartment and had me sign the deed and it was all pretty painless. I had heard rumors throughout life about winning on gameshows “costing you” and things like that, I guess because I already had some money saved for fees and taxes it ended up really painless. Got a brand new car work 16k for about 3k in fees and stuff. Totally worth it and would totally recommend it!
Here’s a tip: If you ever go to one of those game shows that pick contestants out of the audience, they have a producer briefly interview EVERYONE (usually in groups) beforehand, and as long as you’re lively without being theatrical, and seem interesting without being crazy, you have a good shot at being picked. When the producer was interviewing the 20 member slot of audience members I was grouped with, he asked everyone their name and what they did and one interesting fact about themselves. And one random guy who desperately wanted to be on TV started doing the worm there in the interview area. You could immediately see on the producer’s face that though he was forcing laughter, that’s definitely not what they’re looking to put on TV. Loose cannons are a big no go.
Image credits: itsjustmoran
#16
My grandmother was Queen For A Day. It’s an older game show. She won a new living room set. Pretty nice for the times.
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#17
My mom and I went to The Price is Right and my mom got called down, got onstage, and won her game. She did not win her wheel spin unfortunately. But she won $10,000 cash from her game so that was pretty good. Can’t complain about winning a bunch of cash. I think about 30-40% went to taxes.
Image credits: springflingqueen
#18
I won $1600 on Cash Cab. Who would have thought that knowing the name of George Clooney’s pet pig would prove to actually be useful someday?
We were given “money” on the show, but after filming wrapped, the producers took it back and the money was sent to us after the episode aired. None of our earnings were taxed because this wasn’t in the US.
Image credits: glass_kites
#19
My mom got on (and won) Wheel of Fortune. I’ll try to be vague to protect her identity. Per the show, she officially won an all expense paid trip to a country I won’t list, a (at the time) brand new infinity (2010 range) and like $25,000 cash. She said she was required to pay tax on the car, which was several thousand dollars up front that she just had to pay as her game show winnings took a while to arrive so she couldn’t use that. She took out a short term loan using the car as collateral to pay that tax. She sold the car, paid off the loan, and kept the difference. Something they don’t tell you is how heavily taxed income from game shows is; I remember her only keeping a few grand out of her 25k. She did, however, get to keep most of the money from selling the car AND the trip to a foreign country was legit (including the spending cash they give you when you’re out there). Overall, she used the money to pay off some debts and lived basically the same after the show (minus some debt and with the added life experience in another country). For any wheel of fortune fans, she said Pat is short in person, that everyone stands on pedestals to make them appear identical in height, and that Vanna White is extremely nice.
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