Chesapeake woman wins vacation with Regis

CHESAPEAKE

Watching daytime TV and owning a TiVo recording device paid off nicely for Karen Fuller this week.

The Greenbrier resident won a weeklong Caribbean vacation by watching “Live with Regis and Kelly” on Tuesday.

Fuller, 47, said she has been a fan of the ABC television show for 20 years and watches every weekday or records it when she can’t be home during the 9 a.m. broadcast. Tuesday the show debuted its “Spring Fling Trivia A Gro-Go” contest. Fuller entered the contest online.

During the show, co-host Regis Philbin spins a prize wheel to determine what a phone-in caller will receive if he or she correctly answers a trivia question about a guest on the previous day’s show. Fuller received a call just before 8 a.m. Tuesday saying she had been selected and needed to be available at about 9:15 when Philbin would call her live.

That meant Fuller had one hour to review Monday’s show. Fuller was sure the trivia question would be about “CSI: Miami” star Emily Procter, who was Monday’s featured guest.

Fuller was correct. After trading barbs with Philbin and his wife, Joy (who was filling in for co-host Kelly Ripa), Fuller had to name one of two Academy Award-nominated films in which Procter had only one line. Fuller knew both: “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Jerry Maguire.”

As a result, Fuller and her husband, Joe, will spend a week at the St. James’s Club in Antigua later this year.

Joe left the house Tuesday morning for his job at Dominion Enterprises just as Karen got the pre-show call. He interrupted a meeting he was leading, he said, to watch the show from his Norfolk office with about 10 other people.

Karen invited a neighbor to watch the show with her and her daughter, Katie, who was home on spring break.

It’s actually the second time this Philbin fan has profited from her “Live” loyalty. Three years ago, Fuller won a trip to an Arizona resort through a trivia contest.

She added she once won $1,000 by putting an address label on a coupon for the “You Got Milk” campaign.

To those who lament that she’s “just lucky,” Fuller offers this advice: “Ya gotta play to win.”

Kevin Armstrong, 222-5202, kevin.armstrong@pilotonline.com