Hello, and again Happy New Year again, from all of us here at HowToWinGameShows.com!
And when I say ”all of us”, of course I actually mean “me”.
Our guest blogger Ryan Vickers (by which I actually mean “my guest blogger Ryan Vickers”) is back this week, with Episode 12 of His Life In Game Shows…
So take it away, Ryan!
==================================================================
Ryan and his friend Terri on ‘Let’s Make A Deal’
My Life in Game Shows
Episode 12 – Going with your gut – Let’s Make A Deal, 2017
I’m pretty lucky that as a teacher (my main job) and my hosting of Reach for the Top (the secondary gig) allows for a structured summer holiday schedule. This year I was committed to be in Detroit, Michigan for a sporting event and then in Las Vegas for a trivia convention (which I’ll talk about in a future entry). There was some time in between and one thing led to another and I soon found myself with a friend from work once again in Los Angeles.
As per my previous visit to La La Land, I had booked tickets to The Price is Right and Let’s Make A Deal.
|
PRO TIP: If you’re serious about getting on an audience participation show such as Price or Deal, bookmark the website for ticketing and check it daily so you can get tickets when the date first becomes available. Also consider calling the ticketing agent – often you won’t get a date guarantee but you can at least establish a reasonable window of time when they will tape. The agency that deals with Price, Deal and Match Game, for example, gives out priority tickets (get there at 8:59 AM for a 9 AM call and you’ll get in) and general tickets (which seats after priority). All it takes is a bit of time! |
The first show was The Price is Right. I was delighted to have to mark an “X” on my contestant qualification number as a badge of honour (as I was on the show previously) and it lead to many fun conversations in line.
The second show was Let’s Make A Deal. On and off since 1963 (and currently in season nine) it has evolved from a calm affair at the beginning to the Halloween party for the audience that it has become.
Similar to Price, Deal has players line up and do “speed dating” interviews. One thing that was a bit different from Deal that I remembered from two years previous was that they might ask what game was your favourite and why – so we spent a good half hour the night before verifying the names of games, just in case.
|
PRO TIP: Lots of people have been on lots of game shows – so do your research and see how their experience was! |
In line, my friend Terri went first and then I went second. The interview went well and then we were led into a holding area where we could improve our costumes, take pictures, mingle with other audience members and watch some previous episodes. We kept our energy up – not because we needed to, but because we were having such a darn good time!
|
PRO TIP: Pay attention to information before the show. We were told, for example, to try and avoid going away empty handed if we were chosen. The staff made sure we knew that if we took the cash bribe that it would indeed be cold hard cash we’d be winning! |
About an hour later, during the show Wayne Brady (the host) said he’s looking for two friends… and then pointed at us! As excited as I was to get on the show, I was so happy that my friend was picked as well!
You can see our time on the show here.
Afterwards, much like on Price, once the show was done we were put into a room to deal (ha!) with all of our prizes. In fact, as I type this, I am thrilled to know that one of my prizes will be in my apartment by New Year’s Eve and we will celebrate with it!
|
PRO TIP: Say Thank You to the prize staff. They are nice people and basically they are giving you FREE STUFF. If for some reason you choose to decline any prize (due to space issues, for example) be polite about it! You never know if you’ll meet these people on another game show! |
Next time I’ll talk about a meeting of the game show minds – where we could swap game show war stories!
==================================================================
Congratulations, Ryan – that looks like a fun prize. We don’t have Let’s Make A Deal here, so I’m a little unfamiliar with the format. I do remember, however, writing this post about the logic you should use when confronted with the infamous Let’s Make A Deal door dilemma, back in 2015. It’s a classic mathematical conundrum, and often proves quite controversial… If you’re considering going on Let’s Make A Deal, I’d strongly suggest you have a look at the post.
See you next time!
Tweet
Hi Ryan (and Stephen), I watched your Let’s Make A Deal YouTube clip and it seems as though the option to change your answer is no longer available. That’s a real pity as it would be interesting to see if people would change their answers today and you would have won quite a bit more.
It appears that Monty Hall never did offer the option to change your mind and swap doors. Having searched through YouTube watching old clips the shows format is a little different. Wikipedia starts by saying ‘The Monty Hall problem is a brain teaser, in the form of a probability puzzle, loosely based on the American television game show Let’s Make a Deal and named after its original host, Monty Hall.’ So not actually based on it. Silly me.