Alumnus Eric Porter did what his mother told him would be the “most exciting thing in he would ever do in his life.” He was a contestant on the trivia show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

Porter, a 2004 GW graduate and law student at Temple University, won $16,000 on the ABC game show, which aired his turn in the hot seat on Friday and Monday.

“I never really watched the show, but my mom did. She encouraged me to try out because I knew a lot of trivia and things like that,” Porter said.

Porter said he did little to prepare for the show, where contestants answer questions of increasing difficulty for incrementally larger amounts of money.

He joked throughout the show, at one point admitting to host Meredith Viera that he had developed a crush on her.

Porter qualified for the show in October by taking a test and undergoing interviews with casting directors.

When the show aired, he watched it with a few friends at a bar near Temple’s Philadelphia campus in between his classes.

“I was impressed with how handsome and charming I was,” he mused.

Porter said he plans to donate some of his prize money to an animal rights group in D.C., Compassion Over Killing. While he attended GW, Porter participated in some animal rights demonstrations.

Porter is the second member of the GW community to be a contestant on the show. Junior Sean Holiday appeared on the show last April but did not win $1 million.

-Caitlin Carroll