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Press Your Luck started as a game show on CBS in the ’80s and grew into a beloved series that stood the test of time. In each episode, host Peter Tomarken asked contestants trivia questions so they could earn spins. And when it came time to spin, they hoped for “big bucks, no whammies!” So, what happened to Press Your Luck host Peter Tomarken? Here’s what to know about his tragic death.

What happened to ‘Press Your Luck’ host Peter Tomarken?

Press Your Luck host Peter Tomarken is well-known in the game show world. Tomarken spent the episodes asking contestants questions so they could accrue spins for their turn. When contestants took their turns, they faced the board filled with prizes and the dreaded whammies. Contestants who accidentally hit the buzzer and landed on a whammy lost all of their earnings, but contestants who avoided the whammies could continue to accrue prizes.

Fans of Press Your Luck went on to watch Whammy! in 2002. But Tomarken was no longer the guy at the helm. So, what happened to the beloved game show host?

While Tomarken was alive when Whammy! debuted, he’d die soon after in 2006. He and his wife died when their small plane crashed into the Santa Monica Bay. The aircraft was registered to Tomarken, who was the pilot, and it was on its way to San Diego to bring a medical patient to the UCLA Medical Center when it experienced engine trouble. The plane was headed back to Santa Monica Airport when it went down.

“It’s a big splash, a huge splash. … Then it started going down,” Luis Garr, a man who witnessed the crash, told Fox News. “The wings were still floating, so I was, ‘Get out! Get out!’ because the door was still available to get out and nobody came out. So, the plane kept going down, down, down.”

Three contestants on 'Press Your Luck' with Peter Tomarken talking to them as host
Peter Tomarken hosting ‘Press Your Luck’ | CBS via Getty Images
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He said he ‘qualified to be a host by being so bad as a contestant’

The Press Your Luck host once talked about how he came to become the host of the beloved show. “I qualified to be a host by being so bad as a contestant,” Peter Tomarken shared in an interview alongside Betty White.

Tomarken then recounted his time on another game show well before he was chosen to host Press Your Luck. He was on the show with his wife. His wife’s parents hadn’t met Tomarken yet, but after seeing him as a contestant, they told her he seemed “very nice. Not awfully bright, but very nice.”

“But, it’s a great deal of fun because you can be yourself,” Tomarken noted of hosting. “… As a host, you are being yourself. It’s terrific fun, it really is.”

New ‘Press Your Luck’ host Elizabeth Banks grew up watching Peter Tomarken

The new generation of Press Your Luck is now airing on ABC. Elizabeth Banks hosts the 2023 version of the game show, and she spoke to AwardsWatch about watching the original hosted by Peter Tomarken.

“I watched the original Press Your Luck with Peter Tomarken and loved it and loved him and love the whammies and all that,” Banks shared. “I think what we’ve evolved the show to be so much more contestant-centric, like, we really dig into and really produce the contestants in a way that I’m so proud of us for doing. So, now, I feel like it’s like you’re really getting to know the person whose life is being changed.”

Banks added that she loves the “quirks of the show” they’ve kept from the ’80s. “And then the silly whammy. So, it’s that tone,” she said. “But, then, these deep personal stories, and that’s the part of the show that just engages me at a whole different level that, I’ll be honest, I don’t know of another game show that does that with their contestants.”

Press Your Luck airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

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