Curtis Warren (game show contestant)

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Curtis Warren
Curtis Warren

Curtis Warren was an air traffic controller and contestant on several American game shows and once held the all-time game show winnings record, with over $1,410,000.[1] His total game-show winnings from several programs equal $1,546,988, making him the third overall winner in inflation adjusted dollars.[2]

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[edit] Greed

On November 11, 1999, Warren appeared as a contestant on the television game show Greed. His team won $1,000,000 between them, of which Warren won $400,000 (he also took home $10,000 in a Terminator challenge).

On February 12, 2000, during the show's 4-episode "Million-Dollar Moment" run, Warren (along with several other contestants) was brought back to try and add $1 million to their total by answering one question. Warren was the only contestant who succeeded in doing this, and for four days (until David Legler topped him on Twenty One) was the game show winnings king. He won the chance at the question by winning a one-question terminator show-down and naming Toyota as the company that owns Lexus. He then went on to the million-dollar question: Which four of the following eight TV shows were also theatrical motion pictures (McHale's Navy, The Flintstones, Dragnet and The Beverly Hillbillies, but not Hawaii Five-O, Melrose Place, Bewitched (which has since been made into a movie), or Miami Vice (which has since been made into a movie). He proceeded to name the four films in the first ten seconds of his 30-second contemplation period (skipping the rest of his time), and then repeated them officially during his ten-second response time.

[edit] Win Ben Stein's Money

Warren also competed on Win Ben Stein's Money before his Greed run, advancing to the final round but failing to win the $5,000 from Stein.

[edit] Sale of the Century

Before both of those appearances, Curtis Warren was a big winner on the syndicated version of Sale of the Century. He appeared during the Winner's Board half of the show's lone season in 1986 and proceeded to win all 10 prizes off the board, plus the $50,000 bonus awarded to contestants that successfully won their 11th and final game. He walked away with $136,288 in cash and prizes.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] USAToday
  2. ^ [2] Slenske, Michael, "Trivial Pursuits." The Atlantic Monthly, January/February 2005. retrieved January 17, 2007