Turner Today
By: Jessica Gallardo
On August 21, 2013 Theresa Buntain, an English teacher at R.L. Turner, made a special appearance on the popular game show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Her appearance on the show aired at 1 o'clock in the afternoon on September 11, 2013 on NBC.
In an interview with the english teacher, Buntain reveals her time on the game show, "Being on the show was fun, it was a little nerve wracking because of what happens before you actually stand at the podium, theres a lot of things that happen before that. There's a lot of waiting, theres a lot of sitting around…Then they take you up on the set so you can get familiar with it before you actually go on the set to play."
Throughout her time on the show, she faced a series of questions that were well out of her comfort zone. Of those tough questions, the most difficult question Mrs. Buntain had trouble answering was, "How long would it take to work off a Big Mac?"
"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
"I didn't know how many calories a Big Mac was so I jumped the question," she said.
When asked how Mrs. Buntain was chosen to be on the show, she replied, "I don't know if I want to call it a fluke … I was listening to KVIL the radio station, and they came on and they said 'Be the 8th caller and you could win a chance to be first in line for the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire audition.' ...and I reached over and grabbed my phone and I dialed KVIL."
"It's always been on my bucket list. I never thought that I would be on it and so when they said you could be in line to audition for it, I thought 'Well lets try it' so thats why I picked up the phone, and when I called they answered the phone and said 'you're the eight caller' I said "I am?!" and they said 'Yes," said Mrs. Buntain
Mrs. Buntain was lucky enough to be first in line for auditions in a group of 600 people, but how does someone audition for a game show? During auditions the contestants receive a test with 30 questions. The 30 questions must be answered in 10 minutes and turned in once time is up. Once the tests are scanned the number of the scantron is called out, if the contestant's scantron number is called out, they are automatically put in the contestant pool.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire asks different types of factual questions. A good way to prepare for the game show would be to, "keep up on current events, read magazines, read the newspaper and I think if you do that you'll at least be prepared for the questions about things that are happening now" said, Mrs. Buntain.
Theresa Buntain profited a substantial amount of money. She plans to use the money to buy a couch, go on a shopping spree on Amazon.com and Half Price books, and she also plans to buy books for her students who can't afford to buy books they need for her AP classes.