More perks than just the prizes! A comedian named Danielle Perez, who uses a wheelchair, competed in an episode of The Price Is Right that aired this week, and she got much more from the opportunity than the ill-suited gift of a treadmill.
Perez, who doesn’t have feet, became a viral phenom after the game show aired on Tuesday, May 5, and she won a treadmill that she can’t quite use. The cringeworthy video of the awkward moment helped Perez nab a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the following night, appearing alongside famous faces including Adam Levine and Nicholas Hoult. She got red carpet-ready for her big moment on national television, joining Jimmy Kimmel on the set in an eye-catching sequined dress paired with a black cardigan and tights.
Perez grinned as she met Kimmel, 47, again finding the humor in her 15 minutes of fame.
“That was my first time — I’ve never, ever been on before,” Perez explained of her appearance on the long-running competition show. “I was there with my friend Wendi Starling, she’s a comedian and I’m a comedian.”
Perez got picked to “Come on down,” and successfully won her round of One Right Price, nabbing the now-infamous treadmill, as well as a new sauna. While the exercise equipment is of little use, she still looked overjoyed with the win, shaking host Drew Carey‘s hand and happily accepting her prizes.
Asked by Kimmel whether she realized how ill-suited the treadmill was for her, Perez exclaimed simply, “No!”
“I was just so focused on cash and prizes,” she added. “You know, you’re in the studio with no windows, and just Drew Carey is the god of what’s happening on The Price Is Right, and you just wanna win! You wanna win so bad.”
“A treadmill is kind of a terrible prize no matter what the situation,” Kimmel chimed in.
“For anyone, yeah!” Perez agreed. “People keep asking me what I’m gonna do with it, and I said, ‘I guess I’ll just do what everyone else does [and] just use it as a piece of furniture’… It’s completely random. My best friend tweeted, ‘Well I guess we know it’s not rigged!'”
The comedian went on to speak to the backlash that followed the viral moment, as some Twitter users took issue with the poorly picked prize. Certain viewers spoke out against the show’s producers, saying they should’ve prevented the moment from taking place, and preemptively set up a better prize for Perez.
“That’s so crazy to me!” she said of the outrage. Perez herself had a blast with the awkward moment, tweeting memes and jokes about the treadmill in the hours that followed the show’s airing. “That’s so insane.”
Watch Perez talk The Price Is Right and find out what she plans to do with her sauna in the video above!
