Journal Staff Report

Cortez attorney Rebekah Courvoisier took a trip to New York City last week with hopes of returning a whole lot richer.

Courvoisier earned her trip to the Big Apple by qualifying to be a contestant on the game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" hosted by Regis Philbin.

In order to qualify for the show, potential contenders must first call the show’s toll free number where they are asked a series of three questions which increase in difficulty.

"My mom was the one who got the information and I made the phone call from her house just for fun," Courvoisier said.

After correctly answering the questions, competitors are placed into a random drawing where they will be matched up against 25 to 35 people in playoff rounds until the time of the filming. Out of those playoff rounds the 10 people plus two alternates with the most correct answers in the shortest amount of time are flown to New York to compete on the show.

The finalists who make it onto the show are asked to arrange four items (such as televisions shows in chronological order) as fast as possible. The person with the fastest time goes on to center stage with a chance to answer 15 questions and win a total of $1 million (a task that no one has yet achieved).

The Cortez contestant missed her opportunity to advance to center stage by two tenths of a second on last Tuesday’s show.

"When I found out what a small amount I missed it by I was kind of bummed out," Courvoisier said, "but my sister and I had a lot of fun on our whirlwind visit to the city."