Senior sits front row at game show, spends quality time with father

For over half my life I have watched The Price Is Right with my family early in the morning during break or other vacations. Whenever a contestant would come on stage and be anywhere near the minimum age of 18, my mom would tease me saying, “That’s going to be you when you turn 18!”

It is safe to say that I never imagined it would actually happen until my 18th birthday.

On the morning I became an adult, my whole family gathered in the living room to open presents. With my birthday taking place the day after Christmas, I collected my presents from under the tree.

Grasping the first one, I began to open it, confused by the light contents within. As I opened the box my eyes fell upon a small piece of paper indicating The Price Is Right tickets. I had just opened my ticket for the filming of the Price Is Right, Jan. 15.

Gradually the few weeks passed and it was finally time for my dad and I to begin our journey to Los Angeles for our father-daughter trip. My dad would attend the filming with me and we also made a stop at California Baptist University for a campus tour the day prior.

Early Tuesday morning, my dad and I hit the road on our way to CBS Studios. We arrived to park a respectful three hours early to avoid missing any entrance time cutoff. After roaming around The Grove, an LA shopping and dining entertainment center, we joined the 300 other people in line to check in at the CBS studio.

My dad and I wore our matching purple-shirts, with mine reading, “Celebrating 18 with Drew”, and my dad’s, “Celebrating my daughter’s 18th with Drew”. We didn’t feel out of place with hundreds of other people wearing their own custom, colorful t-shirts.

After checking in and receiving our name tags and contestant numbers, my dad and I were directed towards a long bench where we took our place in numerical order. We met a lot of crazy people in line at the studio. Some people were randomly screaming to prove their enthusiasm, and others wore as much glitter as humanly possible.

We were seated alongside 200 other contestants for about an hour outside before we were taken in groups of about 40 people to be briefly interviewed by two Price Is Right employees.

The first employee made her way down the line asking constants what profession they were in and a show-related questions, such as favorite game and reason for attending the show. The second sat behind the first and jotted down notes. I assume those notes contained a list of people who were prime to get called on stage.

Once it was finally our turns to be interviewed, I felt the nerves kicking in. This was the deciding point if I was going to get called up or not. After my group was quickly interviewed, we were directed around another side of the CBS building to join yet another line.

If there was one thing I wasn’t expecting, it was the number of lines we had to wait in. The waiting wasn’t that bad because my dad and I got to meet lots of people around us and strike up conversations. I also had a lot of fun hanging out with my dad.

One hour and several energy drinks later, it was finally time to enter the studio. In numerical order, we began climbing a flight of stairs, with every step increasing the butterflies in my stomach. As we reached the top we were greeted with a sign showing “The Price Is Right.”

Like Disneyland, as you entered the studio doorway we were asked how many in our party. My dad and I followed an employee down to the second to front row of the audience. We were squealing with excitement from being seated so close to the stage when we were interrupted by an employee, explaining we were moving to the front row.

Check out The Price Is Right Twitter page for more videos and snippets of episodes.

After winning his pricing game & hugging his favorite model … this contestant is ready to stay here forever! ? Give it up for ALL of our models ??? & show them some love below! pic.twitter.com/sROfIE2hwo

— The Price Is Right (@PriceIsRight) January 24, 2019

We could not believe it. Our seats were located directly behind and to the right (from stage view) of the bidding booths, in view of every camera on set. And let me tell you, there were many, many cameras on set filling the entire stage. After everyone took their seats, we were greeted by George Gray, The Price Is Right announcer. He introduced us to the staff and important people for us audience members to keep an eye on.

Us front-row audience members had to keep a close eye on the cue-card lady. She would tell us when to scream, jump, cheer, clap, share our bid and interact with contestants on stage.

Right before it was about time to start filming, The Price Is Right host, Drew Carey came on stage and the crowd went crazy screaming. It was finally time to begin, so we began screaming and cheering, as directed by cue-card lady, and the first four contestants were called down.

This part was so different from what I had seen on TV. The whole audience of about 300 people were screaming, so it was nearly impossible to hear whose names were getting called.

Thankfully there were cards held up with the names on them. After each contestant that won the bid went on stage in hopes of winning a prize, there was a small break. At one of the breaks, the highlight of my trip took place. Drew Carey came down from the stage and shook the hands of all the front row viewers, including my dad and I.

The cue-lady had the crowd up on their feet and screaming the whole time. My dad and I lost our voices from screaming the whole hour we were filming. As silly as it sounds, we were exhausted from cheering non-stop, as were the rest of the audience members I’m sure

My dad and I never did make it up on stage. In the eyes of others we may seem like losers, but in my eyes I am a winner because I got to spend the day with my dad. Though we didn’t leave the CBS Studio with a new car or trip across the world, we left with wonderful memories and a happy heart. For anyone considering heading to LA and attending the filming of a Price Is Right show, I would highly recommend it, and encourage you to do so. The whole experience was so much fun and a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Tickets are free on The Price Is Right, first come first serve. Be sure to be on the lookout for Kaylie Clem and father Jeffrey Clem on the episode’s premier on channel CBS, March 7.

Due to a no photography policy, no pictures were taken inside the studio.

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