'I Burned Through My Lifelines:' Pappas' Game Show Cameo Gets Campaign Rerun

By by Michael Graham, NH Journal

Chris Pappas’ 2011 appearance on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” is returning to your TV screen.

The Senate Leadership Fund, the Republican super PAC backing John E. Sununu in New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate race, is giving the Democrat’s 2011 game-show cameo a campaign-season rerun.

The 30-second spot opens with a familiar game-show welcome: “Please welcome from Manchester, New Hampshire, Chris Pappas.”

“Chris Pappas wanted to be a millionaire, but it was Congress that made him rich,” the narrator says.

“His bank account soared. His lobbyist spouse’s career a success, and Pappas helped his employer get favorable treatment,” the narrator continues.

After declaring that Pappas “didn’t win then,” the spot includes the younger Pappas assessing his performance.

“I think that I burned through my lifeline a little bit too quickly,” he says.

Back in 2011, one of those lifelines went toward escaping a question about—of all things—politics.

Host Meredith Vieira asked which former president had the lowest overall approval rating, averaging 45.4%, according to Gallup. The choices were Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and Gerald Ford.

Pappas, a Harvard government graduate who had already served in the New Hampshire House and as Hillsborough County treasurer, couldn’t answer and instead used his “Jump the Question” lifeline.

The answer: Truman.

The next question mixed politics with Hollywood, asking which best actor winner had co-authored a scientific paper linking brain structure to political beliefs.

Pappas initially leaned toward Colin Firth. But after asking the audience and getting conflicting guidance, he used his remaining jump.

His first instinct had been right. The answer was Firth.

Still, Pappas didn’t leave the Oct. 10, 2011, broadcast empty-handed. He built his bank to $35,000 before a question about Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” persuaded him to quit.

Asked what the nude Venus used, along with her hand, to cover herself, Pappas considered her hair and a fig leaf. Rather than risk his winnings, he walked away with $17,500 under that round’s rules.

The answer was her hair.

Now SLF hopes his old quest for a fortune will help shape his political future.

Pappas gets another final answer Nov. 3. This time, the audience gets to decide.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.