What happens when three Citrus College faculty enter a televised quiz show? They leave with pockets full of cash.
The team won $1000 in a head-to-head with the “Karaoke Kids” in a game show called “America Says.”
Citrus faculty Toby Guebert, Beverly Van Citters and Theresa Villeneuve were selected as part of the “Professors” team . The episode titled “The Karaoke Kids vs. The Professors,” airs on the Game Show Network on Aug. 29.
A friend of the trio, Nicole Jones rounded out the team of four that competed for the grand prize of $15,000. Guebert was intrigued about the opportunity to be on the show for the network as it was in its launching season.
“I’ve been on four game shows so I’m always looking for one to come on — especially new game shows,” Guebert said.
While Villeneuve and Guebert are seasoned players, Van Citters was new to televised competition.
“This is my first time being on a game show,” Van Citters said. “I would say the partner in crime starts with Theresa. She was our leader.”
“America Says” groups players in teams of four to compete over three rounds of survey questions. The show is host by John Michael Higgins — a comedic actor who has appeared in the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest.
Teams try to select popular responses to polls asked across America, similar to Family Feud. Except the first letter of the correct answers are shown on the board and the game is played with less response time.
In each round teams get their own survey question and 30 seconds to fill in the blanks. Teams are awarded three points for each correct answer. Bonus points are awarded if the team correctly answers all seven blanks in 30 seconds.
But if a team fails figure out the top seven responses, the opposing team can steal their points by filling in the outstanding responses. After three rounds, the team with the most points wins $1,000 and advances to a bonus round in which they can win $15,000.
“They had food for us, they pressed our clothes, and it was wonderful going through the makeup and hair process,” Van Citters said. “It was really exciting to be involved with what was going on behind the scenes.”
Villeneuve disagreed.
“This particular game show, I found to be more stressful than fun,” Villeneuve said. “There are a million little ways to screw up, so we had to rehearse and practice all day. They would call us into another room with another team and we would play the game over and over.”
Guebert enjoyed talking with his show rivals off-camera.
“The thing about game shows is you get to meet other people, and you get to talk to them because you have a lot of time to kill,” Guebert said. “And they were all fun, interesting people.”
During rehearsal the professors said they had mixed feelings toward their opponents. One thing they agreed on was the opponents mastery of the game.
“They were friends that knew each other from performing karaoke at some bar,” Guebert said. “They had a lot of screen presence because they like to perform.”
Villeneuve attributes her team’s defeat to the competition’s off-putting personalities.
“They were a bunch of millenials who were very high energy to the point of obnoxiousness, and they thought themselves very amusing,” Villeneuve said. “The unfortunate thing was the “Karaoke Kids” might have been obnoxious, but they were also really really good at the game.”
Villeneuve said other teams had the same reaction to the “Karaoke Kids.”
“Our green room had another team in it and they couldn’t stand the “Karaoke Kids,” Villeneuve said. “The other team in our green room would be like, ‘Please tell us you wiped the floor with those guys,’ and each time we’d say ‘Uh, no.”’
Gubert was not pleased with the performance in the rehearsing rounds either.
“We had to go up against them during the mock rounds during the day and they were kicking our butts,” Guebert said.
When it came time for the actual filming of the show, the “Professors” were in for a treat with their opponents as they were not sure who that team would be on the actual filming day.
“When we actually went up against them for the taping I thought, ‘oh God, they are going to beat us again,’” Guebert said.
Van Citters was not informed on the setting of the live show either.
“I think what really surprised me was that I had not a clue we were going to be playing in front of a live audience,” Van Citters said. “But I am a trained host master, so an audience doesn’t bother me.”
The “Professors” would advance through the first two rounds, and in the third round, they defeated their nemesis, the “Karaoke Kids”, by answering all seven blanks to “What are seven things every superhero has to have?”
Guebert remembers the winning answers were cape, sidekick, nemesis, superpower, mask, weakness and secret identity were the winning answers.
“This third round was the best because we cleared the board and got a bonus and that clinched the game for us,” Guebert said.
Since the teachers answered all seven correctly in round three, they knocked out the “Karaoke Kids” and won $1,000. The team from Citrus made it to a bonus round for a chance at $15,000.
“It was so funny,”Van Citters said. “When we beat the team with all millenials, the host said ‘I’m so glad you guys won — you guys are older,’”
Van Citters said the final round was difficult because the round was unrehearsed.
“The four of us then did the bonus round and we failed to win,” Van Citters said. “But we went around as much as possible.”
