Eureka!!! Evan Stern of Queens, New York Wins $100,000 As 1st Round Champion of Gold Rush on AOL.Com

AOL:

    Watch the 1st Round “Gold Competition” Online at AOL.COM/GOLDRUSH                         (www.aol.com/goldrush)                  $2.1 Million in Gold Still up for Grabs                  Play Rounds 2-13 to Stake Your Claim 

Evan Stern of Flushing, Queens, New York has been named the 1st round winner of Gold Rush(TM) (www.aol.com/goldrush), the groundbreaking seven-week interactive game from AOL and Mark Burnett, where players can literally turn their pop culture know-how into gold.

As the 1st round champion, Evan Stern has won $100,000 in gold or cash (he chose cash) and will return to play in the game’s finale round in November to compete for an additional $1 million. Stern bested fellow contestants Brian Ferrara of New Hyde Park, New York, and David Varney of Odom, Georgia, in a head-to-head “Gold Competition” round finale filmed at V Theatre in The Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. After several intense phases of the competition, in which Stern was falling behind, he stunned everyone with a surprising turnaround. “The Comeback Kid,” as the producers dubbed him, ultimately won by successfully answering trivia questions about three Las Vegas pop culture icons, which then gave him the code to unlock the gold vault and claim the prize.

Beginning today (Tuesday, September 19), video of the winning moment will air, free on demand, on AOL.COM/GOLDRUSH (www.aol.com/goldrush). New players will see how Evan Stern did it – and they can begin playing any time.

“Gold Rush has been a very intense experience that pits you against other pop culture junkies,” said Stern. “Winning this game has been rewarding not only fiscally, but also emotionally.”

Said Mark Burnett, “Congratulations to Evan Stern – our first Gold Rush winner! Response so far has been amazing! More and more people can play each and every round – and every one of them has a chance to win big just by turning their own pop culture know-how into gold. What could be easier than that?”

Gold Rush, hosted by Entertainment Tonight Co-Anchor Mark Steines, asks players to answer a series of pop culture challenges using clues scattered throughout the world of media and pop culture – in CBS Television Network programming, popular magazines, radio shows, and on AOL.com.

In each of the first 12 rounds, the first three players to answer all the questions correctly are whisked away to a specially selected location to compete in a fast-paced, pop culture-contest for $100,000 in gold. In the 13th round, the first 12 winners return, along with 6 new contestants, to vie for the $1 million grand prize.

“As the first round winner, I feel that I have a distinct advantage. I plan to study the other finalists and develop a strategy to go for the $1 million in the final round,” said Stern. “I am planning to use my current winnings to buy a new car and find a new apartment.”

Evan Stern is a twenty-nine year old native of Flushing, NY. He is a creative consultant and owns his own business, senseLOGIC Solutions. Stern is a graduate of Katharine Gibbs School for graphic design. In his spare time, Evan enjoys going to Mets games and is an avid music fan.

Log onto www.aol.com/goldrush for more details and rules on how to play – and potentially win gold over the course of the game’s next 12 rounds.

About Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett is the leading producer of reality content for both primetime television and the internet. Mark Burnett has revolutionized television with hits such as Eco-Challenge, Survivor, The Apprentice, The Contender, Rock Star, Martha Stewart in syndication and On the Lot. Mark Burnett has also partnered with AOL on the eagerly anticipated adventure Gold Rush, the first-ever unscripted reality game show to be produced exclusively for the internet. Mark Burnett has also successfully reintroduced product placement as an integral part of each of his shows and his companies have garnered a total of 43 Emmy(R) nominations since 2001. Mark Burnett was listed as the #1 Most Valuable Player by TV Guide and in Time Magazine’s Top 100 most influential people in the world today.

About AOL

AOL and its subsidiaries operate a leading network of Web brands and the largest Internet access subscription service in the United States. Web brands include the AOL.com(R) website, AIM(R), MapQuest(R) and Netscape(R). AOL offers a range of digital services in the areas of education, safety and security, communications and music. The company also has operations in Europe and Canada. AOL LLC is a majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. and is based in Dulles, Virginia.

For free hi-res stills of Evan Stern please log onto www.thenewsmarket.com/aol to make requests. Registration and stills are free to the media.