Taping Report 4/2/17 (7984K, airs 6/15/17)

[PaladinTornado]

I had the great pleasure of attending my first taping last Sunday, one of the last tapings of Season 45. My wife and I were on vacation in Los Angeles (from Atlanta) and checked many things off the bucket list, including a taping of TPIR. We had priority tickets, as I requested them as soon as they came available. That was totally unnecessary as the audience was nowhere close to full. There were probably 50 paid members and I even got an email while in line informing me that the taping still had some open spots. The morning taping last Sunday was the Mothers Day special, which seemed to be much more well attended. I overheard a lady coming out of the studio tell someone they were letting the members of the audience (over 18) stay for the afternoon taping if they wanted to.

Anyway, the taping was a blast. I will agree with all reports I have read that the studio is so much smaller than it looks on television. This report does a pretty good overview of the basic pre-taping process. http://www.golden-road.net/index.php/topic,27106.msg448526.html#msg448526

We were numbers 027 and 028. I got nervous when talking to Stan. You have just a few seconds to impress him. I was very first in the interview group, and he asked me what I do. I answered and he made a joke to which I responded and then he moved on. However, we were seated about three rows behind CR so I was hopeful. My wife and I are certainly on-camera frequently! Three people we met in line got called down, but unfortunately, my wife and I did not. The taping went smoothly. George did one pickup line at the end, and Drew had to re-record a very small line for unknown reasons. Otherwise there were no issues. Drew and George are entertaining. I would say George is much more charming in person. The set is also very impressive in person. The crew is also very hard-working, which was cool to see.

I will discuss more in person after the episode airs. Let me know if you have questions. It was great to finally see everything in person.

[Mr. Weatherman]

Something about having to pay 50 people to sit in on a taping of The Price is Right just doesn't sit well with me. I knew they had issues with filling seats early on in the Carey era, but I was under the impression those issues had been largely resolved. Has anyone else who's attended a taping recently experienced this?

[SamJ93]

And of course the big question...are the paid audience members eligible to be contestants?

[therealcu2010]

No.

[SamJ93]

I figured as much, but just wanted some confirmation. That means the paid audience is a good thing for everyone else since it slightly increases the chances of getting called, no?

[PaladinTornado]

I figured as much, but just wanted some confirmation. That means the paid audience is a good thing for everyone else since it slightly increases the chances of getting called, no?

This was my thought too. They were indeed not eligible, and I noticed they did not receive number cards below their name tags.

[Gerald78]

Anyone here know how much they get paid to sit in?

[Mr. Weatherman]

Anyone here know how much they get paid to sit in?

I was wondering this, myself.

I doubt it's very much. Maybe $100? Less?

[PaladinTornado]

We were curious too, and my wife asked one of them how much they got paid. The person couldn't answer that question!

[CBSpromoman]

Who pays them? Where's that money come from?

I'd like to think it wouldn't affect the prize budget, but the money has to come from somewhere, and I can't imagine CBS would be happy with the idea of hiring audience members itself.

I, too, was under the impression that paid audience members was a temporary thing when Carey took over...has this been going on all this time or is there some new issue and this has just started up again?

[Axl]

How often does TPiR tape on a Sunday?  I can totally imagine it being more difficult to fill the studio when people have to come in on a Sunday morning to go through processing... especially in late-to-bed, late-to-rise Los Angeles.

These days, there are lots of second- and third-tier shows (and even some popular ones, like Judge Judy), where the entire audience of every show is paid.  They don't even bother taking ticket requests because it's more trouble to deal with processing the requests and separating paid from non-paid than it is to just have one company cast everybody.  Obviously, they can't switch to a totally paid audience on TPiR because they need eligible contestants.