If he throws as well as he speaks, the affable youngster may well have a chance at scooping the life-changing sum.
Promising to buy his brother a car is first on the agenda, and then setting up his own firm.
“Undertakers never go out of business, do they?” he said with a smile. “Money’s money!
“Being successful is all I’ve ever wanted. Darts would be an amazing way to go for that, and I’d love to put some respect into the sport and hopefully achieve a lot.
“But I also love to entertain, whether that’s on a darts stage or a programme.”
A Freddie Mercury impression is part of his routine, and there were certainly no signs of being under pressure as hype around the programme builds, with Cooper-Johnson saying he almost didn’t hang around to audition.
“It was uproar when we got there,” he said, mum Stacie adding that the family only found out about his ‘joke’ application after receiving an invitation to the try-out.
“The queues were miles and miles of eager men and women all wanting to challenge one person, which is crazy to think about.
“I’d had enough of standing around and was walking back to the car before a steward in a high-vis showed me the queues for under-18s.
“It was still two hours in the rain, but we finally got in, and that’s where it all kicked off.”
And it ended with telephone tips from Taylor.
“My best mate Phil! I was in bed half-asleep when Mum came in with the phone,” Cooper-Johnson said.
“When you heard who it was, I was out of bed, stood up, almost saluting, and he personally told me I had a place in the live show.”
There is every chance judges were impressed with his ad-libs as much as his accuracy.
Cooper-Johnson says he is yet to hit a nine-darter, quipping “that treble 19 messes with me, man”, but he has come a long way since starting three years ago.
He initially picked up darts to join his brother and father in the living room, “lobbing darts at an unusual board on an uneven wall…it was shocking!”
Mum Stacie, whose own interest in watching darts was reignited by Littler’s emergence, added: “We know how much Makinley loves playing and we’ve noticed he’s got better and better over the past six months.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since the audition, but the family are ecstatic and so proud of him.”
They will be in the crowd at the Manchester Central Convention Complex as he aims to beat Littler, with Cooper-Johnson hoping his walk-out song suggestions get the green light – and that he gets an early crack at the champ.
“I don’t know the order, but if I had to pick, Luke doesn’t like playing earlier on,” he said.
“He likes to settle into his game, so I’d probably like to be in there relatively shortly.
“But then again, you gotta give the fans a show, haven’t you!”
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