Nick Borey lived every millennial's dream as a contestant on the first-ever season of Legends of the Hidden Temple.
Borey, now 44, tells PEOPLE he grew up near Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Fla. One day, he spotted an advertisement in the local paper, the Orlando Sentinel, encouraging kids to audition for a new "action-adventure game show."
"We called the number and got an appointment to go down to Nickelodeon Studios and audition," he recalls. "At the audition, they took your weight and height, you went through an obstacle course, and did push-ups. Then you did trivia. Then you went home and waited for a call."
Soon after, Borey got the call every kid dreamed of, and producers told him to come back down to film an episode. Since it was for the first season of the show, Borey "didn't know what to expect."
"They pull us into a huge room. There were a lot of us there because they filmed six shows in a day," he says. "First, they paired us up. You showed up and got assigned a partner."
"Once you've got your partner, they explained the games. They explained the moat, and then the Steps of Knowledge, and then we would break for lunch," he continues. "Then they explained the temple games, and then the temple run."
Since he had no expectations for the show, "as a kid, all I wanted to do was make it to lunch," Borey jokes.
First, he and his partner, representing the Silver Snakes team, completed the moat challenge, where they had to follow specific rules while crossing a narrow swimming pool. They then waited as several other groups went through the same challenge, as they were filming multiple episodes simultaneously.
Once they were all done with the moat section, they moved onto the Steps of Knowledge, where they had to answer trivia about an ancient artifact. After passing that round, Borey hit his goal and made it to lunch.
"It was a Pizza Hut Bigfoot pizza," Borey recalls of the early 1990s staple.
After pizza, it was time for Borey and his partner to compete in the temple games, which consisted of three physical challenges. The two struck a deal. Borey said if his partner allowed him to do the challenge, then he would let her go into the temple first.
The agreement worked, and they won. Then, it was time for the famous temple run.
Before going into the temple, producers showed them a map in the green room. They were then handed a marker to figure out the best route to retrieve the episode's ancient artifact located in the obstacle course.
"They give you a tour of the temple, and they take you to every room, and they explain how everything works, like you're going to every room trying to remember how every single little thing works and get the concept of the game," Borey says. "I didn't understand."
"We got to the temple," Borey recalls. "My partner went and immediately got hit by a temple guard. Then she goes up the stairs, but she gets a jump scare while she’s still on the stairs and almost falls off the ladder."
Then it was Borey's turn to run through the temple. With the live studio audience, he says it felt like a "live sporting event," which "gives you a lot of energy."
"I got to do the silver monkey, which is every millennial kid's dream, and I ran through the whole thing," he says. "In my head, every room I went into, I thought the same thing: 'Please, no temple guard.' "
"It worked up until a temple guard came out. I didn't think much of it at the time," he continues. "I got scared and jumped out of the temple. I'm the only one who ever jumped out of the temple from being scared. Then, the game was over."
Borey's episode aired in 1993. He passed Post-it notes along to his classmates at school, letting them know to tune in, and he then recorded it on a VHS tape.
The show experienced a resurgence in the early 2000s when the network created Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids, called Nick GAS, and began replaying episodes of Legends of the Hidden Temple.
Borey says one common misconception about the show is related to the prizes. While most people deemed the prizes lame or lackluster, he says they were actually great at the time of filming. However, he claims the show's editors changed the prizes to reflect advertisements at the time of the reruns, making it seem as if contestants won odd things like cans of tuna fish.
Borey himself won a telescope.
Another misconception that he hears frequently, even from the Kelce brothers, is that people think they would have easily been able to complete all the challenges.
"Every millennial always says that they would have done better. You have to be a Renaissance contestant because you have to answer questions, work with a partner, and be physically fit," he explains.
He also shares that it felt impossible to complete the silver monkey, which often receives a lot of criticism online as many viewers thought it looked easy.
"Putting the silver monkey together as a 12-year-old is like trying to parallel park with hundreds of people watching you and having just learned how to drive," Borey says. "You're trying to figure it all out at the same time."
Borey has created TikTok videos about his experience being on Legends of the Hidden Temple. One video in which Borey said he would "never forget" the face of the temple guard who scared him caught the attention of a casting director, who encouraged him to apply for the show's reboot.
Borey, with his friend Josh, competed on the short-lived reboot of the show, which aired from October 2021 to January 2022 on the CW. Just like the first time around, Borey made it to the temple run but ultimately lost in the end. Still, he and his friend Josh are among the lucky few who have appeared on the show twice.
"Going through the temple is an experience that is as fun as you would imagine it would be," Borey says. "It's an experience any millennial would give anything to do. I got to do it twice, which is so surreal for me."