BAJL Day 20: Come On Down! My Trip To The Price Is Right

The sign outside the studio entrance. Can you believe the show has been on for 41 years?

              I would first like to preface this post by saying that I did not get called down to contestants row :(  With that said here is my trip report. The day started for my wife and I at 3:30 in the morning. We woke up to shower and get dressed so we would be ready to meet my best bros Michael and Austin at 4:30 AM. This was done in order to miss any morning commute traffic, which we failed to prevent. LA has to be the only place in the world where you can find traffic on the freeway at 4:30 on a Wednesday morning. A little over an hour later we were in Beverly Hills having breakfast at a Norm's Restaurant near the CBS Studios. After our large breakfast we took Beverly Boulevard to the CBS Studios and parked our car next door at The Grove shopping center.



While waiting outside the studio, I snapped this photo as the sun was starting to come up.

               We then took our place at the back of the line that was already forming outside the studio (There were already thirty people in line). At about 8:30 we were let onto the studio lot where we received our name tag and contestant number (mine was 32). We then had to fill out paperwork including our legal name, social security number, and whether or not we had been on any game show in the past ten years. Also, they asked if we knew anybody who worked for CBS as that would make us inelligible to be on the show.

                                                                     How awesome is this?

Took this photo from The Grove

 

               At around 9:30 we were taken to be photographed individually for the producer's of the show to see us and then have a group photo in front of a green screen. The green screen photo was of us pretending that we won something.

Our green screen photo that we stole off their website. Notice the annoying watermark?

            After the photo we waited in another line to be interviewed by one of the show's producers. This is where you really need to turn on your charm and craziness. The producers are looking for people that will do something crazy if they win because that is what the home viewing audience wants. I guess we weren't wild enough since none of us got called down. After the interview process we went to another waiting area. We had to go throught a metal detector and turn in our cell phones so that is why I have no photos of the inside of the actual studio. For those of you that have never been, the studio is SO TINY! It looks so much bigger on television. There are only about 10-12 rows of seats and about 300 people in the audience per taping. Also, I don't think that the studio set has been changed in the last 41 years, there are these super bright colored drapes hanging from the walls accented by light up hippy flowers.

See what I mean? Without the stage lighting the colors look so much worse.

            In between all the games the cameras would shut off and Drew would just interact with the crowd. This was a lot of fun since he is a real pro when it comes to improv comedy and he had some good zingers when he was talking with the audience. Also, he was mocking prrizes that they were giving away on the show and cracking jokes about sponsors of the show which I thought was very odd. Also, there are a lot of people behind the cameras that you don't see. There were about 4 cameramen on stage as well as a stage manager and my favorite, this young kid who would always tell the audience when to applaud and when to yell out bids for contestants on stage to guess.
            I won't give away any of the show other than that but it was exciting to watch. Even though I didn't get called up it was still a ton of fun to be a part of. If you get a chance I would definitely recommend going. The episode will air March 14th and I'm sure I will be plenty visible in crowd shots since I am a giant wearing a purple striped shirt.
            If you are wanting some tips about going to Price Is Right here they are:

1. Stay at a hotel within walking distance of the studio- aside from your ability to get more sleep you can also save on parking (We had to pay 24 bucks).
2. Wear a brightly colored shirt- almost all the people who got called up were wearing brightly colored/ hand made shirts. If you have something written on your shirt it also gives the producer something to ask you about during the interview which means more time for you to show how wild you are.
3. Be enthusiastic the whole time- during the whole process we were all smiles as they have producers placed into the crowd to see who really is worthy of television time.
4. Go early- half of the adventure is the journey so enjoy as much of it as you can
5. If you don't have a hotel nearby DON'T LEAVE- hang out in Hollywood until later in the night. We left before 3:00 PM and it still took over 2 and a half hours to get back to Anaheim. Once again proving my theory that there is never an off-traffic time in LA.

          Well that is it, my experience about going to The Price Is Right. It was a ton of fun and I would deifinitely go again if I had the chance to. Have you ever been to a taping of a televisions show? If so, what was your experience? Let me know in the comments!