Orlando pastor wins car on 'The Price is Right'

Damon Moore scores with 'Lucky $even'

ORLANDO, Fla. – Pastor Damon Moore has a lot to praise after quite the run on the popular game show, "The Price is Right." 

The pastor of City Place Church, which holds its services at Vista Lakes Elementary, was tagging along with his wife, Ti'eshia, on her work trip to Beverly Hills in March, since it fell during their 16th wedding anniversary. 

"I'm killing time and needed something to do, and it just so happened my grandfather loved 'The Price is Right,'" he said.  

Damon Moore was the last person told the iconic phrase "come on down" during the show's taping and found himself the winner of a new car stereo system when he correctly guessed its price without going over. 

"It's like an out-of-body experience," he said. "You literally go crazy." 

Once he was up on stage with host Drew Carey, Damon Moore found himself a chance to win a brand-new Honda Civic if he could successfully guess the price of the car during a game of "Lucky $even." 

According to the show's website, the first digit of a car’s price is revealed and the contestant is given seven $1 bills. The contestant must then predict the next digit in the price. For every number the contestant is from the correct number, they must give back one of the dollar bills. If the contestant has one dollar after all of the digits in the price of the car are revealed, then the contestant may purchase the car for one dollar.

With only $1 left and one digit still to guess, Damon Moore overcame the 10% odds of success and correctly guessed the final digit in the price of the car. Since then, game show rules required Damon Moore to stay quiet about his winnings, with only his nametag and a license plate holder saying "I won this car on the Price is Right" as mementos in the meantime. 

"Once they gave me (the license plate holder),  I was like, I thought, 'Oh my goodness, I won a car,'" he said. "I'll probably put it on for maybe a week, but my goal is to put all these things as a memento." 

Damon Moore's wife told News 6 the couple spent the past year car shopping and never intended for the show to be the way they got a new car. 

"I've never even driven a brand-new car," she said. "I had a wonderful trip, but I'm going to say my husband beat me and one-upped me."  

This isn't the family's first success on the game show stage. 

"I was on 'Hollywood Squares' in college in the college tournament," Ti'eshia Moore said. "I did win my game, but he definitely one-upped me."

Now that he's allowed to talk about it, Damon Moore is sharing the experience, even through his sermons. 

"I told the whole church, that it's important to trust God in everything," he said. "Where you sit matters. I was way in the back, but they still called my name. I've been shouting it out like crazy." 

Damon Moore finally revealed to his two children about the new car when they watched the episode and captured their reactions. 

Damon Moore credits his grandfather and researching how to be an ideal contestant for him getting picked by producers to play on the game show.

Now that the episode aired, the brand-new Honda Civic should arrive at the family's home in the next several weeks. 


About the Author:

It has been an absolute pleasure for Clay LePard living and working in Orlando since he joined News 6 in July 2017. Previously, Clay worked at WNEP TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he brought viewers along to witness everything from unprecedented access to the Tobyhanna Army Depot to an interview with convicted double-murderer Hugo Selenski.