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Thom McKee (born 1955) is a retired officer in the United States Navy and 1977 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. He is best known for being a contestant on the game show Tic Tac Dough , becoming the show's longest reigning champion and (at the time) the highest money winner in American game show history.
As a contestant on Tic Tac Dough, McKee won $312,700 (the equivalent of about $1,156,333 in today's dollars) in cash and prizes over 46 days on the show. He played a total of 89 games, defeating 43 opponents (the remaining games other than his last being drawn), and answered 353 questions correctly. His total prizes included eight cars (as winners on Tic Tac Dough were awarded a new car every fifth win), three sailboats, 16 vacations (which he was unable to take), several other smaller prizes, and $200,000 in cash. [1] Prior to McKee's record, the most ever won on a television game show was The Joker's Wild contestant Eileen Jason, who won $305,280 ($250,000 of which was won during the 1979 Tournament of Champions).[ citation needed ]
McKee was defeated on August 3, 1980 by Erik Kraepelien to end his winning streak. Three years after his original run on Tic Tac Dough, McKee made one more appearance on the show, this time to compete in a Tournament of Champions.
The wins and consecutive days records were broken by 100% contestant Ian Lygo in 1998, while the winnings record was broken by Michael Shutterly during the original 15-night run of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 1999, where he won $500,000. McKee still holds the American record for most consecutive games played (100 games, 56 wins), due to the nature of Tic Tac Dough making ties possible (and frequent). However, Jeopardy! contestant Ken Jennings (who himself set a new cash winnings record), beat the wins record with 74, and most consecutive days with 75 in 2004–05. [1]
In the 1990s, he became president of Hicks & Rotner Associates Inc. (now H&R Retail), a brokerage firm. [2] He later moved to Maryland and became a realtor.
When Ken Jennings made news for his record-breaking run on Jeopardy! in 2004, McKee wrote to him to congratulate him. Jennings responded by telling McKee that he had been one of his inspirations as a trivia fan, having watched his original championship run as a child. [3]
Shortly after his reign on Tic Tac Dough ended in 1980, McKee was invited to appear on To Tell the Truth as a subject. He fooled three of the four panelists, with Nipsey Russell being the only one who correctly identified him.
Later, in 2008, McKee was invited to participate in Grand Slam , an American super tournament featuring sixteen former game show contestants competing for a $100,000 cash prize. The contestants were seeded by their total winnings, with McKee drawing the #11 seed in the tournament. This matched him up with John Carpenter, who was the first contestant to win the top prize on the American version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 1998; McKee was defeated by Carpenter and did not advance in the tournament.
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