When CrossFit 330 owner and coach Michelle Sutton was gone from the Barberton gym for weeks at a time earlier this summer, people questioned what happened to her.
Michelle Sutton owns and coaches at CrossFit 330 in Barberton, and when she was gone for weeks at a time earlier this summer, people questioned what happened to her.
“It was just, ‘hey, I haven’t seen you at the gym in a while, checking in on you’,” Sutton said.
It turned out, she was busy taking part in a new game show on one of the country’s largest networks.
“Everyone at the gym has been so excited for this and wanting to do watch parties,” Sutton said. “When they found out, everyone said ‘oh, let’s do this’. It’s been really amazing to see the support.”
Sutton is set to appear on Fox’s “99 to Beat” this fall. The game show’s premiere episode aired Sept. 21.
In the show, 100 contestants compete over the course of the season for $1 million in a series of head-to-head challenges, where the objective is to not finish last.
The show is hosted by actor/comedian Ken Jeong and sportscaster Erin Andrews, and features a variety of team and individual games with the last-place finishers being eliminated until only one person remains at the end of the season.
During the first episode, challenges included finding one of the 99 flower leis hidden within 1,000 filled balloons, extracting a whistle frozen in a block of ice (using only body heat to defrost the ice) and then blowing it and guessing the weight of various items.
‘I’ve been training my whole life for this’
Sutton said she previously applied for another game show, and after not hearing back for a period of time, she reached out to the casting director for any updates, which is when she learned of this new opportunity.
“The casting director told me the other show was on hold, but they had something else for me that they thought I would be good at and would enjoy and they wanted to know if I was interested and of course I was,” she said.
After the producers described the show’s format on the initial phone call, Sutton thought it would fit her competitive spirit perfectly.
“I’ve been training my whole life for this,” she said. “I’ve been interested in trying to get on a game show for years and everything worked out this time. Fate said this was the one.”
After weeks of waiting, Sutton was cast on the show, which filmed in May. She said she initially didn’t know what to expect when filming began.
“I didn’t really have any expectations when I first started on the show, I only knew there were going to be 100 people,” she said. “I think my competitive background from just being an athlete and competing a lot throughout my life made it kind of easier for me to just not worry about competing in front of the cameras or other people.
“As soon as that buzzer went off, I just went into competition mode and you’re just so in the moment and I just kind of blacked out everything else and focused on not finishing last,” she said.
Prize money reaches seven figures
Contestants originally believed they were competing for $100,000 in prize money and were surprised to learn during filming that the winnings had been increased.
“We were standing on our spots and Ken and Erin came down to do the introduction for the first episode, when Ken said ‘we have 100 people here who are playing for $1 million’ and he kind of looked at us and Erin looked at us and we all started looking around and the room just exploded and everyone was so excited,” Sutton said.
“Then suddenly it became a question of how do I get through this game that is standing between me and $1 million?” she said.
Sutton said the response she has received from family and friends after they found out about her turn on the game show has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Even people that I went to high school with and maybe I haven’t talked to as much since then are cheering for me and reaching out and telling me that they watched and they saw me and they’re so excited,” Sutton said. “It was just really heartwarming to hear because I think in today’s climate, you forget that people are out there that care about what you’re doing.”
Sutton can’t discuss how she fared in the competition until after the series airs, so stay tuned to find out if she brought home the big prize.
“99 to Beat” airs Wednesday nights at 9 after “The Floor” on Fox and will be available on Hulu on Thursdays.
Reporter Anthony Thompson can be reached at [email protected], or on Twitter @athompsonABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Barberton woman Michelle Sutton to appear on Fox show ’99 to Beat’
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