Carlo Lucarelli (Johnsonverse)

Carlo Michael Lucarelli (born July 13, 1969) is an American-Australian media mogul and former game show contestant who is best known for being the biggest winner of Sale of The Century, winning $2,553,295 in cash and prizes between 1991 and 2003, which currently makes him the fourth highest-earning game show contestant in history. Since May 3, 2009, Lucarelli has been the CEO of Reg Grundy Television.
==Early life==
Carlo Michael Lucarelli was born on July 13, 1969 to Roberto and Gloria Lucarelli in Dayton, Ohio. Lucarelli's grandparents came from Sicily to New York City in 1902, and then moved to Dayton by 1926. Lucarelli attended Oakwood High School in the 1980s, and due to his high grades managed to earn a scholarship to UCLA in 1988. Lucarelli attended UCLA's business classes until finally graduating in 1992.
==Sale of the Century contestant==
On November 23, 1991, while attending classes at UCLA, Lucarelli first appeared on Sale of the Century. He competed for seven days before finally winning the entire lot, which was valued at $302,575 and included trips to Hawaii and Tahiti, a 1992 Cadillac Allante convertible worth $58,470, and a cash jackpot of $208,000 which, at the time, was the second-highest jackpot in the series' history.
In October 1992, Lucarelli competed in Sale's 1992 tournament of champions, becoming the youngest tournament winner of the time at 23, and outlasted eight different opponents to win a 1993 Eagle Talon Sports coupe worth $25,720 and won the finals to win a lot valued at $125,000, which included a cash jackpot of $50,000 and a new 1993 Cadillac Seville sedan worth $36,990. Due to this win, host Jim Perry referred to Lucarelli as "Driver of the Century" due to winning three cars. 
Lucarelli would compete in the 1993 international tournament in the United States team against New Zealand. The United States team would win, and Lucarelli and his partner would split a $100,000 prize. He also competed on and won the 1997 Masters Tournament, winning a $50,000 cash prize, and competed and won the series' 20th anniversary tournament in March 2003, winning the $2,000,000 cash prize to become the biggest game show winner in history, unseating Kevin Olmstead's previous record of $2,180,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, though his record would be unseated by Ken Jennings on Jeopardy! in 2004. 
Lucarelli's last appearance as a contestant on Sale was in the 2013 30th anniversary reunion tournament, in which he finished second and won $500,000, which was donated to charity as he was now an employee of Reg Grundy Television. This would end up being Lucarelli's first and only loss as a contestant.
In February 2004, Lucarelli was inducted into the Sale of the Century Hall of Fame, which would be the last hall of fame ceremony before the series' syndicated version was cancelled. 
==Reg Grundy Television==
Starting in June 2003, shortly after winning the 20th anniversary tournament, Lucarelli began working for Reg Grundy Television as a question writer for Sale during its last season on the air. After Sale was cancelled, Lucarelli moved into the business side, becoming senior vice president of the American Grundy branch by 2006. On May 3, 2009, after Reg Grundy announced his retirement from television, Lucarelli was announced as the new CEO of Reg Grundy Television, a position that Lucarelli has held ever since. Under his tenure, the game show Temptation was renamed back to Sale of The Century starting at the beginning of the 2009-2010 season, and the Sale of the Century Hall of Fame was brought back starting in February 2010. Reg Grundy has also commissioned revivals of Sale of the Century in Australia, South Africa, France, Germany, and New Zealand during his tenure. The company has also commissioned revivals of Scrabble for NBC in 2014 and WBC in 2024, along with the game shows Keynotes and Blast to the Past, a revival of the short-lived 1980s game show Time Machine, for WBC. Finally the studio that currently houses Sale of the Century at Johnson Studios was renamed to the Reg Grundy Studio in 2016 after the passing of Grundy. 
==Personal Life==
Lucarelli has been married to Australian model and yoga instructor Anita Robinson since April 15, 1993. They have three sons: Peter (b. 1995), who currently works for Reg Grundy Television as senior vice president of the American branch, William (b. 1998), and Arthur (b. 2001), and a daughter, Vanessa (b. 1999). 
He currently has two residences: a home in Malibu, California and a home in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Through his wife in 2011, Lucarelli and his children were granted Australian citizenship, making the Lucarelli family dual citizens. 
Lucarelli is known for being very outspoken regarding social media, as he believes that social media has been a negative influence and a detriment to society. Due to his anti-social media stances, Lucarelli does not have any social media profiles, and mostly lets people know about him through his blog that he runs on the Reg Grundy website and through interviews.
==Acting==
Lucarelli has guest starred in a few TV series over the years. In 1996, he appeared on an episode of Detective Jenny titled "The Biggest Winner", in which Jenny appears on Sale of the Century to investigate criminals trying to mess with the production of the show. Lucarelli appeared as a contestant named Johnny Williamson, who (like Lucarelli himself) was an advantageous champion who couldn't be caught.
==See also==
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Category:Johnsonverse