Why did Criss Angel offer 'Long Island Medium' star Theresa Caputo $2,000,000 ?

Theresa Caputo has a lot of critics who think she is a complete sham, Criss Angel being one of them. But instead of naysaying, he decided to offer her two million dollars. Here's why
Criss Angel (Getty Images) and Theresa Caputo (TLC)
Criss Angel (Getty Images) and Theresa Caputo (TLC)

Theresa Caputo has legions of fans that have put her on a pedestal because she claims to have the ability to connect to people who are deceased. She is popularly known as the Long Island medium who was renowned even before she scored a self-titled TLC show that also turned out to be a hit and why would it not? The waitlist for people who wanted to get a reading from Caputo stretched across two years. Now that's huge. But that doesn't mean Caputo holds a clean chit from everyone, one of them being Christopher Nicholas Sarantokos, better known as Criss Angel.

Criss started as a professional magician in 1994 and he's sold out a number of shows and featured on a couple of TV series' in the leading capacity. The illusionist and magician was considered one of the best in the business when he was at his peak but over the years, the hype surrounding him has waned.

Illusionist Criss Angel attends the grand opening of "Criss Angel MINDFREAK" at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on January 19, 2019, in Las Vegas, Nevada (Getty Images)

While he was extremely popular within the masses, Criss wasn't likable enough among the magician community and he openly expressed his revulsion toward psychic mediums. He challenged Uri Geller and Jim Callahan in 2007 to take the $1M dollar challenge on an NBC show. "I will give you a million dollars of my personal money right now if either one of you can tell me specific details of what’s in [this envelope] right now," Criss had told them. Both of them declined to take the challenge. Then in 2013, he decided to challenge Theresa Caputo but doubled the money. 

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'Long Island Medium: There in Spirit': Release date, guests, trailer and all you need to know about Theresa Caputo's Discovery+ show

Why did Criss Angel offer $2 million to Theresa Caputo? 

Theresa Caputo (TLC)

Criss issued the challenge to Theresa very publically. Taking to his Twitter in 2013, he wrote, "@theresacaputo take my 2 million dollar challenge or stop exploiting the vulnerable. If your legit ur 2Million richer #CrissAngelBeLIEve" However, according to a ScreenRant article, she declined to take the challenge saying, "I respect and understand skeptics, and always have, but I am also not here to prove anything to anyone."



 

Theresa is returning with yet another interesting episode of 'Long Island Medium: There in Spirit' after a hiatus of a year and a half. Season 14 aired in October 2019 and now Season 15 will start airing on February 5, 2021, on the Discovery+ app. 

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