SLO County family competes for chance to win $100,000 on Ellen DeGeneres game show
When it comes to games, Arroyo Grande High School graduate Kathryn Ames doesn’t like to lose.
“We are a pretty competitive family,” Ames said, regardless of whether they’re playing basketball, soccer or backgammon.
“It gets a little heated,” she acknowledged. “There are some sore losers (sometimes), but in the end we’re all pretty civil.”
So it seemed only natural that the Ames family — including dad Craig, mom Sharon and siblings Harrison and Katelyn, who all live in the Pismo Beach area — would bring their competitive edge to “Ellen’s Game of Games,” the wacky reality competition show hosted by talk show icon Ellen DeGeneres.
The Ames family appears on the episode “Burst of Knowledge is Power,” airing Sunday on NBC.
Now in its fourth season, “Ellen’s Game of Games” challenges players to compete in a series of high-energy games for the chance to win $100,000. Challenges range from Buckin’ Blasters, in which contestants shoot portraits with giant spinning cannons, to Taste Buds, which requires blindfolded competitors to describe the foods they’re eating to the teammates strapped on their backs.
Failure could result in contestants being sprayed with shaving cream, covered in slime or launched to the top of the studio.
Kathryn Ames, a sales manager for a San Diego software company, described the show as “thrilling.”
“Some of the games you’re going on roller coasters. Some of the games you’re getting dropped from the ceiling,” she said.
Ames and her family donned music-blasting headphones that resemble oversized ears to play Say Whaaat? The game, which is similar to the childhood game Telephone, requires team members to relay a message using lip reading.
“My whole family was excited” to compete, said Ames, whose family filmed their episode of “Ellen’s Game of Games” in August at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. “We were happy to be there and grateful to be there especially after being cooped up in at home for a whole year.”
For Kathryn Ames, the greatest thrill was getting to meet DeGeneres.
“It was so cool!” Ames enthused. “She was great in person. She was so friendly. ... My whole family just blacked out because we were so excited to talk to her. It was like, ‘Whoa, is this really happening?’ ”
Although Ames is a game show novice, she said her mother won “The Price Is Right” “a few years before I was born” in 1994.
“She’s been begging me to go on ‘The Price Is Right,’ Kathryn Ames said, but “without (original host) Bob Barker, I just wasn’t as interested.” “I want to get my family to do ‘Family Feud’ with me,” she added.
Ames wouldn’t reveal how she and her family members did on “Ellen’s Game of Games,” but said they plan to tune in this weekend to watch the show.
“We’re all going to get together on watch on Easter,” she said.
Tune in
Watch “Ellen’s Game of Games” at 8 p.m. Sunday on NBC affiliate KSBY-TV.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "SLO County family competes for chance to win $100,000 on Ellen DeGeneres game show."
