Join Local Boy For A Great Escape

Ross Everett is looking to score a big payday and a new car in Las Vegas this weekend, but he could use your help.

The former Larkspur resident is going for the big prize — $100,000 and a new Ford Escape — in the season finale of NBC's "Escape Routes," which airs Saturday at 8 p.m.

"This show gives so much more control to the audience. Viewers can't change the outcome of the 'Amazing Race,' Everett said. "On 'Escape Routes,' if you don't like a team, the viewers' actions directly affect the outcome. We need our followers to win challenges. This is no longer TV, this is social TV."

Everett and his teammate Brett are in second place with 775 challenge points and 8,251 Internet followers. The duo is just as active on social media as on the show because their fans are just as involved in the competition. Fans can register with their favorite team, giving the team and themselves a chance to win a new car.

"We have a very social following. We've been the social team and because of our followers, we're still in it," Everett said. "We always feel like we're the underdogs, but we keep going."

Everett was back in the Bay Area with his teammate for a series of challenges.

In Santa Rosa, they had to compete against other contestants on a trapeze after learning aerial  tricks and stunts. Not easy for a guy who claims to be afraid of heights.

Everett had a little extra support during the trapeze challenge with his father and friends standing by.

"When we drove to Santa Rosa, I so wanted to get off at Lucky Drive and see the old home again," Everett said. "My dad went to Santa Rosa to meet up with us and my friends were there, so it felt like we have the homefield advantage. It was funny, my dad introduced himself to everyone as my co-producer."

They followed that up with a scavenger hunt around San Francisco, in which Everett called on a couple of freinds from high school.

"David and Graham came out and helped us procure different elements of  the hunt in the least amount of miles. ... They know I worked so hard to have a career on TV, so they knew what this meant to me."

Everett was the kid who loved to log onto Youtube between classes during high school.

"It was in college that I saw the power that Youtube and other social media sites have. I realized then that people can do this for living," he said.

He has worked on the Colbert Report and with Conan O'Brien in the past. Everett's interest in social media and television have finally come together for a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

"My teammate and I got into a habit of trying to get onto TV game shows like 'Million Dollar Pyramid' and others," he said. "We tried out for a new show called 'It's Worth What?' We didn't get on that show, but the producer said we'd be good for this series."

The Boy Scout motto might say "Always be prepared," but in this around-the-world epic, not even Everett's training could have prepared him for some of these challenges.

"This has taken the reality series to a whole new level," Everett said. "The coolest thing we've done so far is the water jet pack challenge," in which challengers had giant jet packs strapped to their backs while water skiing.

"I'm afraid of heights and yet I flew an airplane. I feel like I can do anything now," continued Everett, who was put into the cockpit of an Italian fighter jet. "They sat us down for an hour and told us what to do if something goes wrong, how to eject, all that. ... I learned if you start to pass out, just bear down and try to get the blood back in your brain."

And now that he's seen the world?

"Larkspur is such a fantastic place, I'd love to come back here," Everett said. "I had a fantastic upbringing here and I'd like someday to give that to my kids."