CBS Television City in Hollywood, CA.So there you have it! The biggest part of our trip to California was our little venture to CBS Television City with our tickets to attend a taping of The Price is Right with Drew Carey.
We arrived at the studio at 5 am for the 1 pm taping and got in the line as #28 and #29.
It was good that we were pretty close to the front of the line because actually, the contestants who are chosen for the show are NOT chosen randomly. During the time while we were standing in line, one of the producers of the show, Stan comes out and interviews everyone in groups of 12, and gives each person about 15 seconds to make their mark. Once he sees 9 people he wants on the show, then that's it. No one really knows what he's looking for or who he chooses, but they say it helps to be a young, attractive student. Yep, I'm already disqualified.
This is a picture of the awesome benches we spent most of our day on waiting to go into the studio. We met a lot of really crazy and nice people and could tell pretty quickly those in the crowd who had a good chance of being selected for the show.
We finally got into the studio, which in this picture it actually gives you a better idea of how TINY the studio actually is. They cram 350 people into this little room, and the stage is even smaller. I know it looks huge on TV, but the cameras are literally in the people's faces as they're trying to play the games. Contestants row looks like it was made for a high school play; cheap plywood. There's a painted stair banister for the contestants to hold onto that are bidding, and little lights flash up on the person who has won. Not that they pay attention, one girl thought she won, who hadn't and she tried to run up on stage. Our seats were the third row back, right smack dab in the middle, in this picture, about where the lady in the light blue shirt it. Great camera time.
This is my beautiful name tag which I shall love and cherish forever. Pretty exciting, eh? Well, keep reading, it gets A LOT better.
This is Kim's shirt, which all of us wore on the show. You should note her name tag and in the other corner, Drew Carey's autograph. Kim got said autograph after she was on stage because Crazy, I know!!! So we sit down in the studio and wait for the taping to begin. Once it starts, there is complete pandemonuim, and the 'Most Exciting Hour on Television' also turns into the loudest. All I can hear is Rich Fields say, '.......come on down,' which is sad cause we missed the important 'Kimberly Warburton' part of that phrase. I guess we'll see how long the cameras were on us until we realized it was her.
Hopefully not too long, as they hold up cue cards with the lucky contestants name on it since they realize no one can hear themselves think. So there you have it, Kim was the first contestant on The Price is Right chosen to COME ON DOWN!!! I was pretty much beside myself at that point. Little did I know that it would only get worse.
So Kim runs down to contestant's row and the first item up for bids is some lame model train set. Well, Kim was the last bidder and being the Price is Right aficionado that she is, got to bid last after the incorrect bids of 625, 750 and 800, which she bid 801. The train set was like $1,232 or something, so we wins, I freak out, she freaks out more and runs onto the stage where she throws her arms around Drew Carey in complete emotional meltdown. I must take a moment to just say that Drew Carey was the nicest guy. He spent all the time during the breaks talking to Kim and the other contestants, just getting to know them and autographing everyone in the audience he could. You could tell he was a very warm and genuine person, even though I wasn't that impressed when I first watched him host the show on TV, I am a huge fan now.
This is a picture of the prize winning form Kim had to fill out after the show. Well what did she win, you ask? Well....when she got on stage, and we were both about to hyperventilate, Rich comes on the mic and says, 'Kimberly, how would you like to win.............A NEW CAR!!!!' And they proceed to uncover a 2008 Pontiac Solstice convertible, bright red car. Very pretty ride, and it pretty much sent us both into cardiac arrest. The saddest part is when they revealed the game she had to play, 'Lucky Seven' where Drew gave her seven one dollar bills, and she had to guess every number in the price of the car, give him as many dollars as she was wrong and still have one left at the end to buy the car. Kim had no idea how much the car was, and as much as I wanted to help her, she could barely see or hear anything in the audience as the prompt everyone to just yell and scream as much randomness as possible. It didn't help that there was a '1' in the price either, and she ended up losing. I don't know if she cried, but everyone was very kind to her.
Well, for those of you who are familiar with the way the game is played, the adventure for the Price is Right contestant doesn't end there. After a few more games were played, it came time to spin the big wheel. They choose during a break who would go first, and Kim was number one. So she gets up to spin the old, heavy wheel and lands a whopping 15 cents. Not gonna get ya very far, she's worried and I can't watch at this point. So she gets up and spins again and would you know it, 85 CENTS!!!!!! So she lands $1.00 and $1,000 prize and seems a lock for the showcase. Nope, not the way it happened. The kid after her spins and lands $1.00 on his first spin. So they have to have a spin-off and the kid won. So Kim had to leave the stage where she had to fill out all this paperwork for the rest of the show and I had to sit in my seat in my soiled jeans. Very sad. Even sadder is that the kid that beat her at the wheel went on to win the showcase, which I'm sure Kim could've easily done. OH WELL!!! The good news is that she won $1,000 at the wheel and the train set manufacturers offered to give her the cash value of the set instead of the set itself, so she should get a check in the mail within like 90 days or something. Pretty exciting stuff.
We all pose for one last sweaty, tired shot in our Drew Carey shirts which were provided by our traveling mates, Carson and Rikki who came down to Cali with us from St. George. I highly recommend the Price is Right experience for anyone who is down that way!! The show we taped will air on February 21 on CBS (at 9am in most places).
