The Price is Right

It's not Hollywood or Los Angeles without a taste of the tv or movie business! We wanted to try to get into a taping of The Price is Right. I had gotten tickets online weeks earlier, but these do not guarantee a seat in the audience. They issue way more tickets than seats to ensure a full audience. The process begins early in the morning, hence the reason for leaving Vegas a night early. Our Beverly Hillls hotel was only a few miles away from the CBS studio. At 6:00 AM they start handing out order of arrival passes. After 3 hours of sleep, we arrived at the studio at 5:30 AM and there was already a line of people that stretched down the block. There were two tapings that day, one at 1:00 PM and the other at 4:00 PM. I had tickets to the later taping. A lot of people were in line for the earlier taping, so while the lady next to us got number 138 to the first taping, we got 55 and 56 for the later taping. We were told that if we were 150 or before, there was a good chance that we would get into the show. The trick is that tours get guaranteed seats in the audience, so if there happens to be a large number of people on tours with reserved tickets, your chances of getting into the taping become smaller. Since we arrived early, we were pretty certain that we would get in. I was exhausted after staying up too late the night before updating the blog! Once we were handed our order of arrival pass, we headed back to the hotel for breakfast. The hotel had a great continental breakfast with a large selection. There was a chef making omelets and my egg white, green pepper, ham, and cheese omelet was just what I needed to help wake up! Next we headed all over town to find supplies for our t-shirts. We found WalMart, a 3 story one with a parking garage. We didn't find exactly what we needed, so we found a Micheal's Craft store and hit Walgreens for reading glasses. I really don't know what people did before cell phones and GPS systems. All I had to do was type into my iPhone the store I wanted to visit and we had instant directions! Ryan gave us an idea for Steven's shirt. Steven bought black square frame glasses and his t-shirt said "I am Drew's twin brother." I incorporated mine with Steven's shirt and it said "I married Drew's twin" on the front and "3 years today" on the back since this day was not only our debut on The Price is Right, but our 3 year anniversary!

The back of our shirts said "Mr. Pricer" and "Mrs. Pricer." You can see the CBS studio in the background.We had to be back at the studio at 12:30. Once there, they allowed people to line up in order of the passes that were handed out earlier that day. The next 3.5 hours were spent sitting on benches waiting in line. They checked ID, gave us nametags, had us fill out a card with something interesting, and participate in a super short interview.No cameras or cell phones were allowed inside the studio, so I didn't get any pictures. The studio was a lot smaller than I imagined. There were around 300 people in the audience. We sat in the third row on the end. There are at least a dozen people on the stage at all times: the host, camera crews, director, and people directing the audience when to cheer, yell, etc. It is so loud in the studio with the music and everyone screaming (which is encouraged). In case you can't hear the names being called, there are two people standing up on stage with the names written on posterboards. Drew Carey's 4-year old son came out before the taping began and sang his rendition of Old McDonald for the audience. This little guy had free reign of the stage for the first few minutes that we were in there. He ran all over the place and kept wanting to talk into the microphone while the host was talking to everyone. Drew Carey interacted with the audience during commercial breaks, starting up conversations with people in the first few rows. We didn't get called up on stage, but we still had a great time. It was a lot of fun and it was great to have such close seats. The episode airs on September 28th. The big winner of the day happened to be a lady who was first in line that morning. She was celebrating her birthday and carried around a picture of her 3 kids. Her husband works construction in LA 5 days a week and only gets to come home for the weekend since they live a few hours away. He had taken the day off to celebrate her birthday and bring her to the show. She won the showcase and ended up winning almost $40,000 worth of prizes including a red VW Beetle convertible, a shopping spree, a day at the spa, a diamond necklace, and more that I can't remember. She was so excited!