Texarkana-native competing on new Fox game show

Some events eliminate one person, some events eliminate a whole team, but ultimately, whoever’s left at the end of the show wins.

One of those 100 contestants was Texarkana-native James Meadows, a Texas High graduate and son of a former local preacher.

“I have a lot of connections, quite a few, friendships and people that still are in the Texarkana area that I keep in contact with. And so it’s, obviously been a big part of my life.” says Meadows.

His hometown fans will be looking to cheer him on to see if he was the one to outlast the other 99 to win $1 million.

James says that he originally tried out for a different game show before the network reached out and asked if he would like to be a part of 99 to Beat.

“And so I was ike, well, what is it? Cause I didn’t know what it was. And they’re like, well, it’s kind of like Squid Games. And my first reaction was, wait a minute, don’t people die in Squid Games?” They’re like, yeah, not that part. And I’m like, OK, all right.” says Meadows, “Though they didn’t help make it better when they sent me the form that I needed the doctor to fill out to say that I was able to play because it included things like, could be subjected to extreme heat, extreme cold, claustrophobic conditions, toxic chemicals, and the doctor’s looking at this saying, and why do you want to be on this show?”

He says he did not end up facing anything too dangerous but still completing some of the challenges they came up with were plenty harrowing with the threat of being knocked out of the running for a million.

“Some of them are pretty crazy like trying to get a whistle out of a giant block of ice…. Stringing up 5 pieces of penne pasta on a single thread of spaghetti using nothing but your mouth, or trying to stack 8 nuts on top of each other using nothing but a chopstick.” says Meadows.

Regardless of the outcome though he says that the chance to participate was the opportunity of a lifetime.

“I grew up watching game shows, when I was a single father, I watched them with my son, and now my wife and I watch them after the kids go to bed. It’s just kind of always been one of those things in my life and on my bucket list.” says Meadows.

99 to Beat premieres Wednesday, September 24th, at 8 p.m. on Fox 33.

Latest Posts