June 8, 2006
The NBC promotional trailers promise the audience can play along at home for the first time to win the prize on its new adventure reality series, "Treasure Hunters." One formerly local woman won't need to play along at home -- she's experiencing the real thing. Kristen Johnson, 24, a Slaughters native and 2005 second-runner up for Miss USA, will be part of the three-member Miss USA team, one of 10 teams competing for the hidden treasure. The show begins Sunday, June 18, which is also when the online competition starts. The former Miss Kentucky is a 2000 graduate of Webster County High School and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2004. She earned a degree in journalism with an impressive 3.9 grade point average and summa cum laude honors. Johnson is the daughter of Frankie and Leica Johnson of Slaughters. Both parents are proud of their daughter's success. "We've always tried to support our kids in whatever decision they make," Leica Johnson said. "We pretty much always encouraged them to pursue their own dreams." Johnson's decisions include moving to Evanston Ill., in the Chicago area, to pursue modeling and a career working as a sales representative for Upper Class Collectibles fine sports art. "Modeling is a difficult field to break into and she's not making big money," Leica Johnson said. But Johnson has had some success in both fields, appearing in commercials and magazine advertisements and selling valuable artwork. Perhaps that success will crossover and help her and her teammates win the competition on "Treasure Hunters." Due to a confidentiality agreement with NBC, Johnson is not available for any interviews until after her team is either eliminated or wins the entire competition. Her team consists of Miss Florida 2005 and Miss Indiana 2005. Her mother said she was contacted at some point last summer by the network and asked if she would be interested in putting a team together. Other teams in the competition are made up of such different groups of people as ex-CIA agents, geniuses, families and grad students. According to the NBC Web site for the show, players are challenged mentally and physically "as they travel to historically significant locations where they must decipher cryptic codes and puzzles, each with a clue leading them closer to solving the ultimate puzzle, and obtaining the coveted grand prize." Back home in Slaughters, Johnson's parents plan to watch and tape the shows. "We are a little apprehensive," Leica Johnson said. "We want her to look and appear well on the show, but we honestly don't know what to expect at this point since she's under contract, but we'll be rooting for her."
TKPN
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