“Jeopardy!” contestant Michael Pascuzzi played the game of his life recently ― and came in second place.
He proposed to his girlfriend, Maria Shafer, who was sitting in the quiz show’s audience, according to outlets.
Host Alex Trebek set up the monumental ask on Thursday’s episode by telling viewers that he had no biographical information about Pascuzzi, who’s from Orlando, Florida. Then Trebek left it up to the player to talk about himself.
And that’s when Pascuzzi popped the question. A teary Shafer appeared to anticipate what was coming as he asked her to “make me a winner today and marry me.” She happily said yes.
But in adhering to the rules of the game, she later answered in the form of a question: “What is yes?”
Pascuzzi told “InsideEdition” that the idea came to him just before the taping in July. When Pascuzzi told a show staffer he had been dating Shafer for 10 years, the staffer asked if it wasn’t about time to put a ring on it.
“I decided to do it right then,” Pascuzzi said. He asked the other two contestants if that would be OK, and they agreed.
Pascuzzi now has a pretty big request for the host:
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