You may have seen him on TV while anchoring for Zee News’ English channel, WION! Chennai born Archith Seshadri, who now lives in Atlanta, works at CNN. An engineer turned journalist, Archith spent 2 years in New Delhi covering everything from politics to pop culture. Archith has anchored several breaking news events including the London terror attack, the Manchester bombings, the UK elections and the Barcelona attack. Archith reported from the White House in Washington D.C. for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump. He covered the major political developments from Chennai including the death of Chief Minister Jayalalitha. Archith also pitched, produced and presented an entertainment-news show called “Unscripted.”
He has interviewed celebrities including A. R. Rahman, Vidya Balan, Arjun Rampal, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Jacqueline Fernandez, Maniesh Paul, Prabhu Deva, Daisy Shah and Guru Randhawa.
But when he’s not covering the news, Archith loves to play games! He was the only Indian American contestant on ABC’s prime time game show, $100,000 Pyramid, which is a word association game with contestants and celebrities. Archith competed and won as he played with Snoop Dogg and Questlove on Season 3.
Televised game shows are the modern version of ancient gladiatorial contests. Archith Seshadri tells us what’s it was like to be a participant and his exciting adventure of appearing on the $100,000 Pyramid, ABC’s hit prime-time show.
“In March 2018, I stumbled upon ABC’s casting call for the $100,000 Pyramid game show", he narrates. “On a whim, I decided to fill out the application talking about my love for playing board games, my passion for teaching music, and my recent work and travel adventures in India. The application also required a quick 30-second video where you showcase your personality to the casting producers. Within 24 hours after I hit the send button, I got a Skype call from Ethan, a casting producer from LA.”
Archith was selected after a test on his knowledge of the game. Since I had done well in the initial application and preliminary audition round, the casting producers wanted to test one’s personality and passion and their performance under pressure.
“I figured the more I practiced, the better I’d do”, says Archith who used to practice every night with his mom and brother. “Perhaps it was my enthusiasm, perhaps it was my career in broadcast journalism, or perhaps it was my confidence in articulating clues and playing the game well when I officially received word that I would be a contestant on Season 3 of the $100,000 Pyramid”.
Dressed in a turquoise Express shirt and a blue/green Satya Paul tie with a pocket square he was pitted with rapper Snoop Dogg and The Roots’ drummer, Questlove, and Melanie, an African American, in his winning episode. His participation was kept completely under wraps and barring his family and closest friends he could not share his game show experience.
“Since I love ties, I said I’d start my own fashion line if I won the $50,000”, he laughs.
“Even though I didn’t win the jackpot, $61,500 was a lot more than I walked in with. I was happy with the result and I played the game to the best of my ability. For the incredible experience and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I am grateful.”
Archith has 7 winning strategies for game shows and the game of life: be present - stay in the moment and focus on one round at a time, be positive play to your strengths, be prepared and well rehearsed, prioritize to make sure you know what is important, take risks, be you and lastly be nice, thankful, and grateful!
“Be genuine, smile, and be happy for other people during the waiting period; everyone is trying to be successful. Winning or losing isn’t the main thing-walk away with the experience that very few people can, and leverage the opportunity well to open new doors!”
