Jersey Journal
HARRISON, N.J. — Ever wonder what it’s like to be on a game show with all the lights, sounds and picture-perfect hosts?
Well, just ask lifelong Harrison resident and fire captain Bob Gerris who recently appeared on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and won $50,000.
“It was great ... exciting,” exclaimed Gerris. “It was a little surreal.”
Gerris mustered up the courage to apply to the game show after seeing a commercial about how to apply online. In May, Gerris passed the entrance test and a round of interviews and was put into a “contestant pool.”
“I got a call about mid-June asking me when I was available,” said Gerris. “Then they told me I would be on Aug. 16.”
But the episode didn’t air until Dec. 11.
“I prepared for the show by reading the Almanac,” laughed Gerris. “But they ask such a wide range of questions you really can’t prepare.” He also avoided the usual round of tips and comments from family and friends by not telling people he was going to be on the show.
“You don’t want to tell people because you don’t know how well you’re going to do,” explained Gerris. “If you don’t do well, you don’t want people to see it.”
And Gerris, who is no stranger to the game show scene, speaks from experience. Back in ’92 he tried his luck on “Jeopardy” but finished third, which means he only won $1,000.
But his first experience on a game show didn’t make things any easier this time.
“It’s nerve-racking,” he said. “They said I didn’t look nervous but I was.”
Gerris explained sitting in the “hot seat” was surreal because although you have the sounds and lights all around you, you have a hard time believing you’re actually there.
Gerris lost his chance at the million when a science question at the $100,000 question stumped him.
“I used my phone-a-friend; it was my cousin Brian (Higgins) from Pennsylvania,” recounted Gerris. “He tried looking it up on the computer but time ran out.”
Gerris says you’re allowed to have five phone-a-friends on the list so you try having someone for a specific subject but unfortunately he didn’t have a person for science. So having already used up all his other lifelines, Gerris stopped and walked away with the $50,000.
Even though he didn’t make it all the way, Gerris say he enjoyed this experience more than the one on “Jeopardy.”
“It was better because my family was there with me,” he said. His wife, Ruth, and his two kids, Lisa Clarity and Danny, were able to tag along.
As for the prize money, Gerris already has some ideas.
“Well, like everybody always says I can use the money for bills, but we might take a trip to Ireland,” he said. “Maybe in the summer.”
Regardless of how he spends his money, one thing is for sure: Gerris says his “game show career is over.”
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