Want your chance to “come on down” on The Price Is Right? Then it’s worth knowing how the long-running CBS game show picks its contestants.
As The Price is Right executive producer Evelyn Warfel explained exclusively to TV Insider, the show shoots three episodes a day, three or four days a week, and seven months a year to produce 190 episodes. Though tickets are reserved ahead of time and audience members are asked to arrive at Haven Studios in Glendale, California, by 8 AM, some eager fans arrive as early as 6 AM.
Before each taping, The Price Is Right production assistants talk to audience members in interviews of one minute or less. “They usually ask what their favorite game is, where they’re from, what the show means to them. It’s really to see their energy and personality,” Warfel said. “We pick people for all different reasons, but if someone’s a real big super fan, you can feel it.”
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Producers do encourage audience members to make shirts for their moment under the Price Is Right lights — “it’s fun, and it speaks to their love of the show,” Warfel said — but anyone can be a contestant, no matter how they dress. Warfel did, however, express caution about wearing high heels for a game show involving physical activity.
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For themed episodes, audience members are notified to dress for the occasion. “We switch it up,” Warfel said. “This year we’re doing Galentine’s [Day].”
As producers select which audience members will participate, those lucky few don’t know they’re getting a shot at the Showcase Showdown until announcer George Gray calls their name. “My favorite part of the show are the ‘come on downs’ seeing contestants’ faces light up when they’re selected,” Warfel said. “The joy and the excitement and the surprise of, ‘wow, I got picked,’ there’s nothing better than that for me.”
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