Cottonwood resident Tyler Thompson, at right, appeared on TV earlier this month, as one of the contestants on the season premiere of “Press Your Luck.” Thompson said getting a chance to play on a game show was an “awesome experience.”

MARSHALL — Tyler Thompson has always been a fan of game shows. And this year, he finally got a chance to be part of one.

“It was nuts. I still can’t believe it,” Thompson said.

Thompson, a Cottonwood resident, appeared on the Oct. 10 season premiere of “Press Your Luck” on ABC. Although Thompson had somewhat of a rocky start, he made it to “Press Your Luck’s” bonus game, before walking away with more than $200,000 in prize money and a Camaro.

The show filmed back in March, but Thompson and his wife Alex had to keep the outcome of the show under wraps for months, until the episode aired.

“That was a long secret to keep,” he said. “It was supposed to air sometime in June, and it got pushed back due to the writers’ strikes.”

Thompson said he had applied to be on game shows in the past.

“I’ve been watching (game shows) my whole life, me and my wife,” he said. “I’m kind of a trivia guy and all that stuff. I applied to be on Jeopardy, and they have you take a test and I wasn’t smart enough to pass.” Thompson and his family also applied to be on “Family Feud” in 2016, but it didn’t work out for them to be on the show.

Thompson said he applied to be on “Press Your Luck” during a sleepless night when his son was a baby.

“I actually applied three years ago when my son was born, at about two in the morning because he didn’t sleep at all,” Thompson said. Thompson was watching game shows, and saw information on how to apply to be on “Press Your Luck.”

“So I just went to the website and clicked. And then I didn’t hear anything more,” until he got a text from the show this spring, Thompson said.

Before hearing back from “Press Your Luck,” the Thompsons and two of their friends had planned on taking a trip to Las Vegas in March. “We totally reversed the plan,” and went to Hollywood for the game show instead, he said. “We went out there, and obviously had a very good time.”

Part of the adventure was getting to California in the middle of this spring’s severe weather, and then dealing with Hollywood traffic, Thompson said. “But then once I got on the game show, literally it was like a movie moment. The sun came out,” he said.

“Everybody on that show was so nice. It was an awesome experience,” Thompson said. Contestants started out by attending a day-long “boot camp” where they prepare for being on the show, and get a feel for what playing the game is like.

“You basically go through, what are you going to wear? What are you going to say?” Thompson said. Thompson brought his own clothes to the wardrobe department, but in the end they dressed him in the colorful patterned shirt he wore for the filming.

Even after boot camp, being on the show was still a nerve-wracking experience. Thompson said he didn’t really have a strategy for when he would hit the buzzer during his turn to spin the game board.

“When the other two people were spinning, I would watch them and kind of watch the board. But I was so nervous, I was just focused on hitting the buzzer,” he said. “I’d be looking down, hit it, then look up. So I wasn’t timing anything, I was just lucky not to hit the Whammy.”

Things weren’t looking great for Thompson right at the start of the game. Right away during the first round, he ended up landing on two “Whammy” spaces on the game board. The Whammy takes away a player’s money, and can put them out of the game. Thompson’s nerves also got the better of him, when he answered a trivia question by saying red was the bottom color on a stoplight.

But things changed quickly, when one of Thompson’s spins landed on the prize of a new Camaro. He went on to play four rounds of the bonus game, racked up a total of more than $240,000 in prize money, and also won a metal detector.

It was an “extremely tough” decision not to keep going further in the bonus game, Thompson said. “I would say if I’m on that game show alone, no support, I’m going for it 100 percent of the time.” But after consulting with Alex, he opted to walk away with his prizes.

“I made the absolute right decision,” he said. “I have to thank my wife and friends for that one. That was a smart play, for sure.”

Not being able to talk about the show before it aired on TV was tough, Thompson said. But he did get to see people’s reactions at a watch party back in Cottonwood this month.

“The great part about that show is I, and everybody who was watching, thought I lost right away because I started the game with two Whammies,” he said. “And it just turned out to be an awesome TV moment.”