2011 Salute of Champions: #10-6

#10: The Bishop Family ("Minute to Win It")

On February 2nd, this clan from San Jose, CA was the first such group to actually enter the 60-Second Circle. Aimee actually lost their first life on Rapid Fire for $5K, but they gained it back after Drew & Holly cleared the very next stunt titled This Blows. Following Drew's 18-second $50K Stack Attack, Brad & Drew succeeded at Speed Eraser to earn their Extra 10 Seconds. At that point, once the money got bigger, the less time they had left after each assignment. Both of their girls, Aimee & Holly, solved the Breakfast Scramble w/ just three seconds left to turn their $75K into $125K. Next, Drew beat Hang Over w/ just a second to spare to double that six-figure amount & then went the distance in the Uphill Battle to at least assure they would be the second $500K winners ever. However, on Supercoin, instead of letting Drew handling each of their three chances at the $1M, they let Brad go first, Connor second & Drew last (only he would have 1:10 on the clock). The plan didn't play off, though, so they settled on splitting the $500K & became the only players in a regular game to make it all the way to Supercoin.

#9: Joon Pahk ("Jeopardy!")

When he became the new champ on Oct. 3rd, he denied Chris Fleitas a ToC berth w/ a $28,800 win despite the fact that Chris had won $82,901 after just two wins at the end of the previous week. Joon hit it big himself on Oct. 4th w/ a season-best $50,800 victory. But in Game #3, he was only leading Katie Baker $16,600-$16,400 going into FJ!; since everybody was right, he retained the title w/ $33,100 & broke the $100K plateau. On the 6th, he was trailing Franny Howes $17,600-$14,200, but since he was the only correct responder in FJ!, he won another $16,700 & was in ToC contention. He won his fifth game at $16,800 to wrap up that week via Lock Game Territory. The following Monday (the 9th), he missed the FJ! clue again, but he could've afforded to as he was in LGT w/ $31,200; he dropped to $23,700 to end that episode & was $100 shy of $170K in total winnings at that point. Tuesday the 10th brought Joon his third consecutive LG win, which not only made his overall haul $199K & assured he would at least reach the $200K mark, he was the #2 seed in the ToC behind Tom Nissley after passing Roger Craig. But Joon lost any hope of taking the top seed away when he fell short in his eighth match against Katie Proctor, for a final regular competition total of $201K. He dominated his first-round ToC game on Nov. 4th against John Krizel & Tom Kunzen, but wounded up getting trounced by Roger exactly a week later in the semi-finals & finished w/ $211K.

#8: Noam Osband ("Millionaire")

Former "J!" champ Noam walked to the Hot Podium on Oct. 4th looking to add onto his previous $27,799 "J!" winnings (he was a one-day champ in Season 26 on Oct. 7, 2009). He used his lifelines all in a row on Q's #4-6 (he used Ask the Audience on the fifth query; the two Jump the Questions prevented a combined $28K to be added to his bank) & entered Oct. 5th w/ two Q's left in R1 & $29,600 in his bank. He was able to make it to Classic Millionaire w/ $40,600, where he then identified James Cook as the explorer who introduced the English word "tattoo" & "Jazz" as the American Dialect Society's Word of the 20th Century to turn all of his current "Millionaire" dough into $250K. His $500K Q was:

When "The Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, which of these artists was questioned as a possible suspect?

A: Claude Monet
B: Henri Matisse
C: Edgar Degas
D: Pablo Picasso

Noam narrowed it down to Matisse & Picasso, but after initially saying he was going for it w/ Matisse, he changed his mind & wisely walked away, since Picasso was the right answer.

#7: "Boston" Rob Mariano ("Survivor: Redemption Island")

This reality GS veteran first appeared on "Survivor: Marquesas" & finished as the runner-up by a very close 4-3 vote in favor of Vecepia Towery on May 19, 2002. His second season was on the "All-Stars" season, where he finished second by the same voting result again on May 9, 2004, this time against soon-to-be wife Amber Brkich. The third season of "Heroes vs. Villains" in '10 wasn't the charm for him, as he got voted out at the seventh Tribal Council 4-3-1 over Russell Hantz & Courtney Yates. The first time Rob was in trouble at T.C. in the "Redemption island" season came in the second half of a double elimination episode on Week 9, when he got four votes to David Murphy's six. The second time Rob got votes cast against him was on the first half of another double elimination show two weeks later (two), when Ralph Kiser was voted out w/ six. He finally played the Hidden Immunity Idol that he found early in that cycle on the first T.C. of the finale, but he only would've gotten one vote & Andrea Boehlke was out of the running for good after just winning the last Duel to re-enter the game. The nine-member jury was finally good to Boston Rob on May 15, 2011 as he won a lopsided 8-1 vote over Phillip Sheppard (one) & Natalie Tenerelli, as well as the Sprint Player of the Season award, to win $1.1M & total "Survivor" cash winnings of $1.3M.

#6: Brad Rutter

Still the largest "J!" winner to this day, he faced Ken Jennings & Watson in The IBM Challenge on the week of Valentine's Day & finished in third place, winning $100K for himself & $100K for his charity. We then saw him on the ABC finale of "Million Dollar Mind Game" on Nov. 27th as part of a group of Irish pub trivia geeks. As the captain on their fourth problem, he quickly solved Peeps for $48K. He was in control for their 10th puzzle, which posed:

Like you, these professionals can work as a team. They mostly work nights, although only one of them gets to work at home. In '56, two of them were allowed to start wearing glasses-- not a moment too soon, according to some critics. Who are these professionals?

Brad's final response was baseball umpires & the team nailed it for $600K. Even w/ only one incorrect answer & all three helps still in play, they decided to walk away w/ $100K each, which made Brad's new overall GS cash winnings $3,470,102!