By: Jeremy Scott
The one commonality between all people alive is that we all have dreams, things we would love to have happen to us. Sadly, many of our dreams go unfilled in life. For one West Unity resident, his dream became a reality, and all of us can take solace knowing that there is hope for our dreams to come true as well.
West Unity resident, Jaycee Riley has always wanted to be on the TV gameshow “The Price Is Right”. Recently, Jaycee and his wife Darlene made it to the show and was hoping to “Come on Down” for the chance to win any number of cash and prizes.
Jaycee and Darlene had decided to go on vacation to Puerta Vallarta. They then took a flight to Los Angeles to board a cruise ship to Cabo San Lucas. Upon arriving back to Los Angeles, they wanted to be in the audience of “The Price Is Right”.
One does not simply show up to the studio and get into the show. Jaycee had to go online to fill out an application six weeks before the day they wanted to appear. Two days before flying out, they finally received their tickets.
Upon arriving at the studio, the first thing they asked for were Jaycee and Darlene’s IDs. According to Darlene, “I had left my purse in the hotel room because I didn’t want to carry around my purse all day.” They could have gone back to the hotel, but were worried they would not make it back in time. Darlene told Jaycee “This is you dream, not mine, so I am ok just sitting in the audience.”
Each show has an audience of 280 people. They group about 60 people together and take everyone’s picture, and then a man comes out and talks to all the potential contestants. According to Jaycee “We’re all getting loud, and having a good time, because that’s what you want to do.” Jaycee knew that the louder, and more boisterous you were, the better your chances of getting called up.
After the brief interview they are showed to seating while the other contestants are shuffled through. When everyone is interviewed the contestants are led into the studio where filming takes place.
“We kinda thought that once you go into the studio, first come first serve, you get front and center,” says Darlene. This, however, is not the case. The staff directs people to assigned seats. There are sections that are taped off, and Jaycee and Darlene assume that is where the people who are getting called up will sit. Jaycee relates, “We sat way in the left, out of the way. We’re not going to be seen hardly at all.”
Once the studio is almost full, the interviewer from earlier comes out and starts handing out tickets. Now Jaycee believes that the tickets are handed out to the ones getting called up. “I’m looking at him this whole time, and he didn’t look at me one time.” Jaycee felt deflated “But I couldn’t show that because I wanted to keep going with the crowd.”
Then, before the show starts, they explain how things work. The studio is so loud that you can’t hear when a name is called, so someone will hold up a cue card with the name of the person that gets called.
The show finally starts, and Jaycee is excited, fingers crossed that they call his name. Does his name get called? Is he a big winner? For the answers to that, watch “The Price Is Right” on May 6th.
Jeremy can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com