Pope pre-empts most of Rock Hill man’s appearance on ‘The Price is Right’

The surreal experience started with the words “David Angel, come on down!”

It peaked Thursday when Pope Francis’ speech to Congress pre-empted all but a few seconds of the appearance of Rock Hill’s David Angel on the game show “The Price is Right.”

“The pope preempts Angels,” he said with a laugh Thursday just before the show was scheduled to air on CBS. “If you are going to get pre-empted there is no better reason than the pope.”

Angel, president of Angel Insurance & Financial Services of Rock Hill, held a viewing party at Luke’s Sports Bar in Rock Hill. As coverage of the pope’s speech to Congress concluded, Angel, a former All-America basketball player at Clemson University, and his wife, Jan, shared what television viewers did not see.

“When I heard his name I knew we were in for a show,” Jan Angel said. “He loves the spotlight.”

When Angel met host Drew Carey, the 7-foot Angel enveloped the 5-foot-10 Carey in his arms and “swung him around like a rag doll,” Jan Angel said.

“The crowd went bananas, the staff looked worried,” she said.

“But, that’s my husband, put on your seat belt,” she said.

The second item Angel bid on was a skirt, top, “wild shoes,” and a leather purse. He was the last to bid and when the previous bidder said, $1,200,” Angel replied “1,201.” He said he knew from shopping with his wife and three daughters the outfit cost more than $1,200.

It was worth about $1,600 and his daughters have already split that prize, he said.

Angel said he then played a game where he decided whether the price for an item was full or half price and did well on that game.

He then choose between two boxes, Nos. 2 and 5. One of them held $10,000, Angel said.

He said 2 was a good number, but because they “were the five Angels” he picked box5. It came up empty.

His final appearance on the show was spinning the wheel to see who advanced to the big prize round. His opponent spun a 95 and he couldn’t beat that.

All together Angel said he won about $4,000 in cash and prizes with taxes taking about one-fourth of the total.

Thursday’s episode should be available for viewing on CBS.com.

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Pope pre-empts most of Rock Hill man’s appearance on ‘The Price is Right’."