A mother-daughter duo from Carmel used quick thinking to win more than $50,000 as contestants on the seventh episode of “Lingo,” a word game show hosted by RuPaul.
Riley Compton, an officer in the U.S. Marines and member of the USA bobsled team, competed with her mother, Annmarie Tejcek, on the CBS show. They won the jackpot by correctly guessing the winning word, “talent.”
“It was exhilarating,” Compton said. “It was like we were watching the show, even though we were there.”
“Lingo” features four teams competing in matches where they are given one letter of a word and have five tries to guess the answer within 10 seconds. The top-two scoring teams compete for the jackpot. The show airs from 9 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays on CBS.
Compton said she was contacted by the show through social media. Producers believed she would be a good applicant.
“I couldn’t think of any better partner than my smart, beautiful mother who I got my brains from,” Compton said. “It was better than what we could have imagined.”
Tejcek said that as they went through the interview process, they realized they needed to train.
“This is not a ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ spin the wheel, buy your vowel sort of thing,” she said. “You have to really put some time into thinking about how you beat the clock and solve these word puzzles.”
Their hard work paid off. Compton and Tejcek immediately took the lead in the first round. Tejcek swiftly solved the super lingo “construction” after seeing the first letter. Compton said that after giving 10 percent of the winnings to charities, they plan to use the money to help with her dream of being an Olympian in 2026 and assist with the cost of bobsledding.
Compton said that being on the show has inspired her to potentially pursue opportunities on other TV programs.
“I really want to go on ‘Survivor’,” she said. “I’ve seen every season. I’m obsessed.”
