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Johnsburg Junior High Principal Jamison Pearce was standing in line at 4:30 a.m. in Los Angeles to be an audience member of the classic game show “The Price is Right.”
About 12 hours later, he had made it onto the stage and won a trip to Germany worth nearly $17,000.
“I got so lucky,” he said. “I got so unbelievably lucky.”
Pearce appeared in a special Super Bowl episode of “The Price is Right” that aired Wednesday night and was filmed last month. He was adorned in a full Chicago Bears outfit including overalls covered in blue, white and orange stripes, which he described as “a little outrageous.”
In an audience of about 180 people, only about six actually make it onto the stage, Pearce said.
He got his lucky break when he bid $1 above the highest bidder for a luggage trio.
“Once you get on stage, you forget everything,” he said.
Pearce played the “Double Prices” game and guessed the cost of a round-trip six-day vacation to Germany for $16,750. His favorite games on the show are “Hole in One” and the iconic “Plinko.”
“I said to [host] Drew Carey, ‘My grandma, who was 100% German would have loved this,’” Pearce said.
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Pearce’s luck ran out when he went to spin the wheel, in hopes to hit $1. His two spins only totaled to 45 cents, ending his chance to participate in the Showcase Showdown. But he was able to shout out his family and the Johnsburg community.
“Go Wildcats, the students, the staff and the community,” he said on the show.
Pearce said the response from staff and friends was “amazing” and he spent over an hour just replying to messages from people seeing him on TV, he said.
Pearce said he and his wife are “game show dorks” and have applied to be contestants on “Let’s Make a Deal,” “Family Feud” and “Wheel of Fortune.” They plan on taking the Germany trip this summer, he said.
Since his wife wasn’t able to go to “The Price is Right,” they’re hoping to try her luck again soon. Pearce hopes to tag along because the experience of meeting people in the crowd is the best part.
“It’s kind of like seeing how the sausage gets made,” he said.