Aaron Berkowitz – General Assignment Reporter
Christian Carrion, 24, is a senior and broadcast journalism major at SCSU that you may recognize from making appearances on TV game shows such as “The Price is Right,” “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” and most recently “The Chase” which aired August 13 at 8 pm on the Game Show Network (GSN).
Carrion’s passion for trivia began when he was a toddler staying at home with his mother while his father was at work as a teacher. “I’d be home with my mom and we would just watch TV, she had Days of Our Lives and I had 6 hours of game shows,” said Carrion.
He went from watching game shows at home as a child to making his way out to California to make an appearance on “The Price is Right” for Bob Barker’s last season as the host for his 18th birthday. “It was very surreal being there because it’s a show that I’ve been watching for 20 years and then all of the sudden I was there,” said Christian Carrion, “I got called to play the first part of the show and I went insane!”
“I didn’t really start getting recognized until ‘Millionaire’ happened, that was the second show that I was on out of my four appearances… Channel 3 came and interviewed my family at the house. That was sort of my entry into this weird world of game shows,” said Carrion. With 4 appearances on a variety of game shows it’s fair to call him a “veteran” in this “world of game shows.”
His latest game show appearance was on a show entitled “The Chase,” where he and two random group mates set out to answer more questions than this master of trivia nicknamed “The Beast” for a cash prize. “They tell you all of the questions are general knowledge so it’s really hard to study for a show like that. Other than knowing that they can ask you pretty much anything, there’s no real book that you can study from,” Carrion said while describing his preparation for each show appearance.
Most known for his appearance on “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” and walking away with a 15 thousand dollar cash prize, Carrion discussed his strategies for when to walk away when you are ahead. “I started to think about the money, what I could do with it, and what I could do for my family with it too.”
Christian Carrion’s passion for game shows comes along with an unselfish personality and the desire to see others happy. “I have my own apartment, I go to school, I have a girlfriend, a job, and all of these great experiences. Anything else would just be overkill,” Carrion said describing what he would do if he won a substantial amount of prize money.
Although Christian Carrion expressed his love for appearing on game shows, he mentioned that he aspires to host his own game show in the future. He often creates his own games and shares them on his show that airs on WSIN radio as well.
Not only is Carrion an experienced game show participant but he also shares a passion for journalism. He said that after he finishes school he hopes to branch off in either video editing or some sort of writing. “I’ve been in and won the film festival and also had some of my fiction writing published in Folio, and enjoy news writing as well,” said Carrion “I love the pressure of meeting deadlines and being able to put out new material.” If Carrion’s game show hosting career doesn’t work out he sure does have plenty of skills to fall back on.
