THE GAME SHOW BUG

Local Couple Appears on Ellen’s Game of Games

Story by Michael Seguin

Feature Photo (above) by Mountain Escape Photography

TWENTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD wedding videographer Elise LeBlanc and 26-year-old track athlete Milos Savic met the same way most couples meet: by accident.

“My buddy had shot a commercial for this clothing brand, Titika Active Couture,” Milos states. “In it, there was a shot of a girl running in slow-motion. I actually paused the video. I said, ‘Who is that?’ He told me she was from Windsor. I didn’t believe him. I thought she was some model from Los Angeles or something.”

Unbeknownst to Milos, Elise was already enrolled in the same Film and Photography program at the University of Windsor as he was.

“I had switched programs, so I was a little behind,” Elise recalls. “I had to take a first year Documentary film course in my final year. Milos happened to be in his Master’s already, so he was my Teaching Assistant.”

“It was crazy. I saw this girl on video and then a week later, she comes walking into my classroom,” Milos states.

Elise denies walking into the room in slow-motion, but Milos contests this.

“After class I asked her if she was the girl I saw in that Titika commercial,” Milos reports. “And the rest is history. After the class ended, we exchanged phone numbers and here we are.”

Milos and Elise’s relationship has been one defined by adventure. Together, the two have backpacked around Europe and even spent a month trekking around the United States while living out of Elise’s car. However, they embarked on their greatest adventure yet over a year ago when the two made their first appearance on the small screen.

Milo dancing on set with Ellen De- Generes.

Photo by Mike Rozman/Warner Brothers/NBC.

“For my birthday last year, I ended up getting tickets to Ellen DeGeneres through her show’s lottery system,” Elise explains. “Through sheer luck, we ended up winning front row seats for my birthday. I was so excited!”

Elise attended the taping with her mother, Debbie Leblanc, and her best friend, Kiara Knowler.

“Before the show, we were talking to a couple producers,” Elise recalls. “One asked me if I would be willing to be called down from the audience if Ellen played a game. She didn’t, but after the show, the production assistants told us to stay in our seats if our name was called—and mine was.”

After the live taping, the producers asked Elise if she would be willing to audition for the new season of Ellen’s game show, Ellen’s Game of Games.

“They said that they were looking for couples to appear on the program,” Elise reports. “They asked if I had anyone I would like to do the game show with. Immediately, I thought, ‘Oh my God. My boyfriend’s so competitive. I have to take him.’”

One Skype interview later, and the Windsor couple was on their way to Los Angeles.

“We got flown out that weekend,” Milos reports. “They really took care of us. We stayed the night in a cool hotel. We had a pickup time in the lobby and from there, we were admitted behind the scenes.”

As film school graduates, being on set was a profound experience for Elise and Milos.

“I’ve worked in the industry,” Milos explains. “I’ve been on feature films. But this was the Universal Studio lot. Ellen is the top dog in California. Just the scale of the set and the money that gets pumped into the show was crazy. It’s such a huge production! You can learn about it all you want, but until you’re a part of it, you can’t really understand it. It’s really amazing. And everyone was so nice to us. Everyone was very genuine. It was really cool, being a part of that.”

Milos Savic (in green) and Clint Miller competing in “Dirty Laundry".

Photo by Mike Rozman/Warner Brothers/NBC.

The first game the two played was called Dirty Laundry. Milos and Elise were shoved into a together-sweater—a two-person sweater with one arm hole for each of them. The two then had to race other sweaterbound couples through a pool of soapsuds, all while trying to land a ball into a net shaped like a laundry bin. After dunking, the two then had to answer Ellen’s trivia questions in order to obtain a point.

“Underneath the water were all these tripping hazards,” Milos reports. “I watched the video of us afterwards. We took two steps into the pool and faceplanted. We inhaled a ton of soap and by the time we got through the water, we’d already forgotten the clues to the questions they’d given us.

Despite the ordeal, Milos and Elise ended up winning the competition allowing Elise some one-on-one time with one of her childhood heroes.

“After we won, we got to celebrate with Ellen,” Elise states. “I just turned to her and thanked her so much for this opportunity. She just smiled and started dancing with us.”

Unfortunately, the two didn’t have time to celebrate for long.

“We flew out on Friday,” Elise states. “And we had to fly back home really early Saturday morning. I had a wedding to shoot that day. I had to be at the bride’s house at 9 a.m. that morning. And I was pretty much burping bubbles the entire weekend.”

However, California wasn’t quite finished with the Windsor couple. After their taping, four winners from separate games were invited back to take part in a second round of trivia.

“You stand up on stage with a trapdoor underneath you,” Milos states. “If you get the question right, you stay. If you get it wrong, the trapdoor opens up.”

After considerable deliberation, it was agreed that Milos should be the one to contend with Ellen’s questions and the capricious forces of gravity.

“I decided to sit that one out,” Elise laughs.

Elise watches in anticipation as Milos takes the hotseat.

“Questions ranged from super-easy to absolutely impossible,” Milos states. “It was just my luck the final question was a track and field question.”

After winning the trivia round, Milos was invited to participate in Hot Hands, a celebrity-recognition game.

“You have 30 seconds to name as many famous people as you can,” Milos reports. “If you get 10, it’s a $100,000.”

Milos ended up listing 9 famous people, which netted him an impressive $75,000.

“I blanked out on a couple faces I should have recognized,” Milos admits. “But $75,000 isn’t anything to get upset about.”

Filming took place in June of 2019. The couple’s appearance was not broadcast until the following March. However, despite signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement about what happened on set, the studio gave Elise and Milos their permission to share their victory with their immediate family.

“We invited our parents out to lunch and told them we had something to tell them,” Milos states. “So, we met them at a restaurant and told them what we won!”

“Everyone thought we were getting married,” Elise laughs.

And now that the dust has settled, the two seemed to have contracted the game show bug.

“We’re very adventurous people,” Elise reports. “We’ve been applying for all kinds of game shows. Who knows? Maybe next we’ll try out for the Amazing Race!”

WLM

Clockwise from left: Elise LeBlanc and Milos Savic. Photo by Mountain Escape Photography; Elise watches in anticipation as Milos takes the hotseat; Milo dancing on set with Ellen De- Generes. Photo by: Mike Rozman/Warner Brothers/NBC; Milos Savic (in green) and Clint Miller competing in “Dirty Laundry". Photo by Mike Rozman/Warner Brothers/NBC.