We’ve all thought about it. It comes up in conversation as a fun, silly thing to think about.

If I won a million dollars in a game show, what would I spend it on?

The only difference between us and Mineola native James Meadows, who lives in Houston working in IT security, is that Meadows actually did make it onto a game show, and he actually did have a chance to win a million dollars.

The game show is a brand-new FOX channel show, called “99 To Beat.” Based on a wildly successful European series, the show gathers 100 random people from across the country and has them compete in a series of simple, silly challenges in order to proceed to the next round.

How to win? As the show states frequently, contestants don’t have to finish first – “Just don’t finish last.” The last man standing wins the million dollars.

“A million dollars!” laughed Meadows. “I mean, think about how many people play the lottery each day for the chance of a million dollars. And those things…odds are one in several million that they’ll win. Here, you’re in a situation where the odds are one in 100… how often in your life do you have a one in 100 chance of winning a million dollars?”

Meadows says that he grew up watching game shows. He watched game shows with his son, and now that he’s married to his wife Alice, the two of them enjoy watching them together.

“It’s something that I love, and I’ve always wanted to be on game shows,” he said. 

So, he applied. And applied. And applied. Not only to “99 To Beat,” but to Wheel of Fortune, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, Deal or No Deal and more. So, to him, after “decades” of applying to various game shows across the country, actually making it onto one was a big, big deal.

“It was just one of those bucket list items,” he said. “And so, did I know what I was getting into? Not really, not necessarily. But it was something I couldn’t resist…after all these years of trying to get on a game show, this is my chance.”

One thing that Meadows noticed was different about the filming of “99 To Beat” is that its contestants and feel stood out from the reality-TV that many channels display.

“It’s not one of those reality game shows where there’s backstabbing and you can try and manipulate (people) and stuff like that,” he said. “There was a real sense of family that was not only present during the show, but has kept up since then.”

While filming for the show wrapped up in June (according to the Internet), Meadows says that, even still, all contestants have a big group chat for joking, chatting and keeping in touch.

So, the big question: is our hometown man the one to have won?

Well, unfortunately, Meadows is under a nondisclosure agreement and can’t say whether he was, indeed, the one single person who won the million-dollar prize. All he can say is that, like us all, of course he’s thought about what he would do if he won a million dollars on a game show…and that, at least, he had a chance to do it. To know the rest, you’ll have to watch and see.

“99 To Beat” premiered on FOX Wednesday, Sept. 24. Episodes come out every Wednesday at 8 p.m. CST for 10 shows.