ABC has announced that Mark Nakamoto, 24, of West New York, New Jersey, is the lucky viewer who claimed the $1,045,000 prize from the Push, Nevada Game.
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Nakomoto solved the "Push, Nevada" puzzle after watching the "Push, Nevada" series and the Final Clue, broadcast live during ABC's "Monday Night Football" on October 28, which completed the information viewers needed to solve the puzzle. The Final Clue led viewers to a series of letters taken from the episode clues that, together with a cipher, corresponded to a telephone number. Less than two minutes after the final piece of the puzzle was broadcast, Nakamoto, an assistant editor for a Manhattan publishing company, was the first contestant to call the winning number.
Nakamoto wasn't the only viewer to figure the puzzle out, just the quickest to respond. During the first 20 minutes after the Final Clue was broadcast, more than 500 people solved the puzzle and called the winning number. Within the first 24 hours, more than 10,000 viewers had called.
The Push, Nevada Game was the largest TV and online game of skill ever played in America (for a prize of over 1 million dollars). The TV portion of the game is in a class of its own, as it was the only nationwide game of skill that could be played and won by simply watching a TV show. An estimated number of players upwards of 600,000 participated in the game, based on a percentage of broadcast viewers and online numbers. Additionally, close to 200,000 of these players interacted with the online portion of the game, rivaling some of the largest online games in existence.
"Push, Nevada," a mystery about a strange Nevada town where nothing is as it seems, had its last original airing on the ABC Television Network on October 24. Sean Bailey, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chris Moore were executive producers of "Push, Nevada," from LivePlanet in association with Touchstone Television.
LivePlanet creates, markets and distributes entertainment experiences that break down the barriers between traditional media, new media and the physical world. LivePlanet calls this new kind of entertainment experience "integrated media." Ben Affleck, Sean Bailey, Matt Damon and Chris Moore founded LivePlanet in June 2000.