US curler tries to win cash on reality TV for family to attend Olympics

US curler goes for cash on reality TV

STEVENS POINT, Wis. — U.S. curler Chris Plys will appear on a new reality show and try to win some cash to get his family to the 2010 Olympics, including his ill father.

Plys, an alternate on the men’s curling team for the Vancouver Games, will be part of “Bank of Hollywood” on the E! network. The eight-episode show, produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions, is scheduled to debut Dec. 14. Celebrity judges will award their own money to the participants seeking it, with a minimum of $2,000.

The 22-year-old Plys, who won the world junior title in 2008 and was the youngest skip in the field at the curling trials in February, wants his parents, Patrick and Laura, to be able to travel to the Olympics from Duluth, Minn. Plys’ dad has been battling brain cancer for several years.