Major Announcement Regarding The $1 Million Dollar Prize At The American!!

Once again this year RFD-TV made history and changed the sport of professional rodeo forever.  Every one of the contestants and fans that were a part of this huge event inside AT&T Stadium last weekend left with excitement in their bones and a longing for next year’s event to happen again.  Along with all the excitement that was a part of the RFD-TV’s The American it also came with some controversy and left all those in attendance with more questions than answers.  Luckily RFD-TV’s CEO Randy Bernard noticed that this was happening and did everything he could to answer all of the critics and make things right.

As part of the RFD-TV’s The American wrap up show these concerns and questions were brought to the forefront as Randy Bernard was brought on as a guest to set the record straight and make things right throughout the rodeo world since this was a historic event and he did not want a negative shadow hanging over what should have been a terrific day in western sports history.  After all was said and done and the announcement was made I feel that the wrongs were righted and everyone involved is happy with the decisions that were made regarding the controversies surrounding the payout of the $1 million dollar payout.

K.C. Jones Winning The 2015 RFD-TV’s The American

All the questions and concerns over the $1 million dollar payout given to contestants that have qualified their way into the 2015 RFD-TV’s The American centered around K.C. Jones and the steer wrestling event.  Jones qualified to make it back to the Final Four Shootout to see who would win the title of champion for the 2015 event.  Once the dust settled and everything was put together it was K.C. Jones who would be crowned champion but the payout would come into question as the championship did not come easy for this cowboy.

It all played out on the arena floor but as the last contestant wrestled his steer to the ground it was a tie at the top of the leader board with K.C. Jones being one of the cowboys atop the leader board.  This is the first time in the history of the two year event that this had happened so no one knew exactly what was going to happen with his chance to claim part of the $1 million dollars available to him.  Once it was announced to the crowd that he was in fact the winner by adding the total time off two runs together the excitement was in the air.  Not long after that it was also announced that the rule book stated that to qualify for the $1 million dollars that the cowboy had to win his event outright, which started the huge controversy that was settled and explained of the RFD-TV’s The American Wrap Up Show.

RFD-TV’s CEO Randy Bernard

Randy Bernard, RFD-TV’s CEO, decided to come onto the show as a guest and set the record straight and try to make things right for all those involved in the $ 1 million dollar payout.  Bernard started the show off by saying, “Unfortunately, there was some confusion with the way the rule was written that made it ambiguous.”  He went on to say, “RFD-TV is hosting The American to help the sport, not to hurt anybody. We want to do what’s right.”  With that being said he also made a huge announcement that would set things straight and was highly applauded by all those involved in the decision.

The announcement was made that after a conference call with everyone involved (Taylor Price, Reese Reimer and K.C. Jones) it was agreed that Jones would receive an extra $283,000 for his steer wrestling win. Everybody gave up a little money, including KC, to make the agreement work.  With the rules not clearly defined this was the only right thing to do and I personally applaud the entire RFD-TV’s The American team and their CEO Randy Bernard.  It was known to the contestants that you had to win your event outright but did not clearly define what “outright” actually meant.

It is quite easy to follow all the breaking news and excitement with the Rodeo Round Up simply by copying this website into your favorites in your web browser for easy one-click access to UPDATED event statistics.  You can also like and follow us on facebook here, or by liking and following us on Instagram and/or Twitter at @therodeoroundup.  Jason has also made it easy for you to be a part of his interviews by opening up a listener comment line.  If you have a question for a certain rodeo star simply call in and leave your name, where you are from, who the question is for and what your question is and he will do his best to get it answered for you during his interviews!