Robbi Jade Lew will make a reality TV appearance Monday night on the new USA Network show, The Anonymous, a competition in which the players compete to potentially win up to $100,000.
The Los Angeles poker player is one of 12 contestants competing on the reality game show. She spoke with PokerNews last month during the Variety Children’s charity poker tournament, hosted by Jamie Gold, at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles to discuss her appearance on the show.
“When the opportunity came, it fit perfectly into my schedule, right before (World Series of Poker),” Lew said of how she ended up on a game show. “And I thought why not just go with it? I’m very competitive by nature, and it’s a competitive show.”
Avoiding a Quick Elimination
Episode 1 of The Anonymous, a reality-based show in which contestants must use deceptive tactics to win the $100,000 prize, kicks off at 8 p.m. PT on Aug. 19. Here’s a snippet from a USA Network press release last month explaining what to expect from the upcoming show.
“The Anonymous is a strategic competition played in two worlds: the real world and anonymous mode. The Digital Anonymous Networking Interface, or ‘DANI’ for short, has invited 12 players to live in her domain and work side-by-side to raise a prize fund of up to $100,000.
Despite their close quarters, all players will have their own private underground hideouts, where each is completely anonymous and can say anything and everything behind the mask of a unique handle. In their hideouts, players can provide raw, unfiltered takes on their fellow contestants. They will scheme, connive, and deceive to build influence and advance their game.” – USA Network
The show has already been filmed, and Lew is sworn to secrecy, so she couldn’t give away any real spoilers during our conversation in Los Angeles. But the poker player gave us a little preview as to what to expect from her and The Anonymous.
“My only goal, ultimately, was not to be eliminated first, for reasons known to many,” she explained. “That was the only thing that I wanted to do, so I got on there at a great time. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was very cool.”
How deep she made it, and if she won any money isn’t publicly known, and we’ll all have to watch the show to find out. She referred to her appearance on The Anonymous, which apparently has some similarities to previous reality shows The Traitors and The Circle, as “a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Lew has some game show experience. She competed on a game show on ABC years ago and “won a lot of money.” But she didn’t pursue any other similar opportunities until she received an offer earlier this year.
“I never really cared to venture into that world,” Lew said of why she didn’t continue competing on any reality TV or game shows. “I had a very private life following that. And then now that I’m in the public arena, it just got brought to my attention that, you know, like, there’s a lot of reality competitive s**t out there.”
Lew was lured back in to the reality TV world when staffers from The Anonymous came calling. She said she liked that she would be competing in the first season of the show.
“It’s fun to be part of Season 1, and they have a very fun and notable cast,” Lew said. “Just to be the first ones, we did the best we could with very limited information. I do believe the Season 2, 3, 4, 5, those particular contestants will look at us for the foundation for what they need to do.”
The Anonymous airs weekly each Monday night on the USA Network,a US-based cable channel.