‘Kevin Schmit, COME ON DOWN!’
Those are the words that Kevin Schmit, senior, has waited to hear since he was a 10-year-old boy home sick from school.
This February, Schmit’s dream became a reality when he, his best friend and his cousin all got tickets to visit Los Angeles for a live taping of ‘The Price is Right.’
‘It all just fell together,’ Schmit said. ‘The plane tickets were pretty cheap, we stayed with a fraternity brother for free, and I figured if I was going to go, now was the time.’
Arriving at the CBS studios at 4 a.m. wasn’t good enough for the first day of taping, Schmit said. Even though the doors didn’t open until 7:30, there were already 215 people in line, and the studio could only hold 326 people. Schmit was number 300, giving him seats in the back of the studio.
After the taping, Schmit, his cousin and his best friend returned back to his fraternity house, slept for four hours, and went to go camp out in front of CBS studios. Assuming this would help him be the first in line, Schmit was number 19.
After waiting in line for 10 hours, ‘The Price is Right’ line moved inside for the contestant selection process.
‘It’s not random at all,’ Schmit said. ‘They have ushers walking up and down the lines, cameras are on you at all times, the interviewers ask questions. They are looking for enthusiastic people, to make the show interesting.’
Schmit, determined to be on the show, started the wave, played games with his new friends he made from the line and joked with a producer.
Finally, it was time for the show to begin taping.
Nervous about seating, and recovering from the adrenaline rush the interviews gave him, Schmit was in the third row center, right behind Contestant’s Row.
As the first half of the showcase went on, Schmit was still hoping for his name to be called. When the second half of the showcase began, they called ‘Kevin.’ Schmit bounced in the air, not knowing if he was the Kevin they were calling, but as it turned out, he was.
The audience went crazy – people he didn’t know hugged him, gave him high fives and everyone yelled.
‘I felt like I was on a roller coaster, when you go down the big hill for the first time,’ Schmit said. ‘I jumped up, my stomach dropped, my biggest dream came true and all I could think of was, I can’t believe it.’
He ran to Contestant’s Row where Bob Barker greeted him by asking him to make the first bid. He overbid on the first and second items.
The announcer began describing the third item, and with the audience in the background and not sleeping for over 20 hours, Schmit said the only words he heard were ‘work-out’, ‘bike’ and ‘water-bike.’
With the vision of an aerobic underwater bike in mind, he bid $1 over the current lowest bid. Third time was the charm – he won.
‘Running up on the stage, shaking Bob Barker’s hand, it was all surreal,’ Schmit said.
But after all of the excitement, Schmit did not win ‘Barker’s Bargains’ and when he spun the big wheel, he busted at $1.40.
‘I don’t really care about not winning, it was about the experience,’ he said. ‘Meeting Bob Barker, asking him questions on commercial breaks, it was all a dream. I was just pumped to finally accomplish something I have wanted to do for half my life.’
Now that the experience is over, Schmit still can’t believe that he finally made it.
‘No one believed me when I was calling them, I called my house, and my mom didn’t believe me, she told me later that she knew I was telling the truth because of how fast I was talking,’ Schmit said.
Being a part of the audience was just as much fun as being on the show, Schmit said. An audience member becomes friends with the other people that are in the line.
‘There are 326 people in the audience, and everyone is smiling, high fiving and looking at all the creative shirts, there were so many different kinds of people there, it is just fun,’ Schmit said.
The demographics for ‘The Price is Right’ ranges from kids to 90-year-olds, said Tiffany Bors, production assistant and office manager for the show.
‘College students are typical guests, we usually get groups of 20 or more who call in for tickets, they are a lot of fun. Not one group is better than the other, everybody in any age group gets along,’ Bors said.
Schmit had been dreaming of the day he could be on ‘The Price is Right,’ and he went as far as buying tickets to the show and traveling to California to make his dream come true.
Sophomore Brendan Carroll said he would do the same if he got the opportunity.
‘If I had the chance, I would paint ‘I love Bob’ across my chest, and hitchhike to California, or walk because I probably wouldn’t get picked up,’ Carroll said.
