By Van Mitchell, staff writer
Kourtney Hall Lehman, RN, and mother of five, works as an emergency room nurse at a hospital in the metro Oklahoma City area.
The Portland, Oregon native, was selected to appear as a contestant in the second season of the Fox television game show “99 to Beat,” which premiers on Fox on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 8 p.m.
Erin Andrews (Fox Sports) and Ken Jeong (The Masked Singer) are set to return as hosts for Season 2.
“While balancing a full-time career in healthcare and raising five children, I had the opportunity to compete on a nationally televised show filmed overseas—an experience that challenged me in ways I never expected,” Lehman said. “I am stepping outside my comfort zone to pursue an unforgettable opportunity.”
Lehman said they filmed the show’s second season in April in Limerick, Ireland.
The premise of the game show is 100 contestants compete in physical and unique challenges where the goal is not to finish first, nor to perform the best, but to not finish last. After each challenge, the player who came in last will be eliminated, which will add $10,000 to the pot.
The last person standing (after a total of 50 games and 10 episodes, besides the season finale) will walk away with $1 million.
Each episode has 4 solo games and one team game. In the event of a team game, the team who fails to win any heat or round or comes last will all be eliminated. Some team games feature team captains, which are decided randomly, and have teams drafted via a schoolyard pick. Other games feature multiple heats, with players or teams who come last in each heat put into the elimination heat.
Finally, pair games have the pair who comes in last face off against each other (in the event of a team game, the losing team will be split in half until the required number of contestants to be eliminated is reached).
Lehman did not apply or audition but was asked to appear on the show based on prior television work she had done.
“Me and my parents owned a shaved ice truck. And so, there was a show in Portland called “Portlandia,” that was filmed and they had seen our shaved ice truck, and they wanted it to be part of an episode,” she said. “When I met with the casting directors or the producers, one of the women said, ‘Have you ever considered doing body doubling?’. And I was like, ‘No. No, that’s never been on my radar.’. And she goes, ‘Well, we need a body double for “Grimm,’ which is another TV show that is filmed there. I had never watched it. I’d never heard of it, but they were paying and I was a poor nursing student. And so, after class I would go and I body doubled the last two seasons of Grimm for the main girl on the show.”
Lehman said she did body double work for two seasons.
“I did that, paid for part of my nursing school and my bills. And then because of that, I have this profile somewhere and I don’t know who has access to it, but randomly I’ll get these people who call me or send me emails and want to cast me for things,” she said.
Lehman said she normally ignores those requests.
“I was at work and I got a call from one of these girls and she said, ‘There’s a show filming. It’s a game show. I think you’d be a good fit for it.’ And I was like, ‘I guess I’ll look into it.’ And I did. And the next thing I knew, I was on a flight to Ireland,” she said.
Lehman said the game shows feature mental and physical challenges,
“There were a lot of things that required you to have a steady hand. There was physicality to some of them too. Yeah, a little bit of everything,” she said.
Lehman said her game show experience was interesting.
“It was something I’d never done before,” she said. “I was good at a lot of the stuff, which they will see when people watch it. But I also talk under my breath because I’m quiet, but I’m sarcastic. So, I am hoping they have muted some of the things that were on my mic because the ER nurse showed a little bit there.”
Lehman said it was hard to be away from her husband and children during the filming.
“I felt guilty about doing it. But my husband kept telling me, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” And my kids think it is cool,” she said.
