Spring Break
Mass murderer, engineer-or millionaire?
Heidi Schallberg
Issue date: 10/3/05 Section: Culture
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Even Blundell hasn't seen the two "Millionaire" shows that are scheduled to air this Wednesday and Thursday on KSHB 41 at 4 p.m. While he isn't supposed to reveal how well he did on the show before it airs, he already beat out about 22,000 applicants for the chance to audition against 250 others for one of eight contestant spots.
"I've always been into trivia," he explained. But Blundell had never been on a national game show, so he decided to try.
After applying online, the show called Blundell to audition in New York this July. He had to answer 30 questions to proceed to the final interview.
"You could flunk the interview if you weren't a very interesting person," he laughed.
In August, he returned to New York to tape the shows with his wife, Kathryn, and his son, Sam (a UMKC sophomore) in the audience.
Before Blundell left to do the show he gave his own auditions.
"I did have an audition for several people who wanted to be a phone-a-friend, and I had a quiz night to check them out," he said. Each contestant could pick five people to wait by a land-line phone for up to seven hours to quickly help with an answer. Blundell called on his "old trivia buddies," who previously competed with him on quiz nights at O'Dowd's.
At the studio, the contestants were even instructed on the proper way to sit in the chair on stage.
"You sidle up backwards, you scoot your bum on it, and then you put your hands back and grab hold of the monitor to swing yourself around," described Blundell. "Everybody had to prove they could do it before they were allowed on."
Once it was his turn in the chair, Blundell's acting and teaching experience helped him in front of the hundreds of people in the studio audience.
