What a wonderful taping! We were in the same interview group as Carol. We knew right away as soon as we met their group that one of them had a good chance at being called. Everybody in Carol's group had very strong interviews with Stan, and they clearly are big fans of the show.
Carol has four-inch-long nails that she likes to show off. I asked her in line if she would be able to spin the wheel with them, and she had a great reaction. She shook my hand and said, “now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” It was a pleasure to spend time with them in line.
Other note: I’m 90% sure the guy who was right next to me in line browses the forums. He knew all the secrets (the 20-30-40 trick in Cliffhangers, the 4 Nows/2 Thens rule.) He got there early, likes to air drum in line and was visiting for his birthday, as he does every year. Shout out if you’re reading this--you know who you are!
Nobody knew that it was Big Money Week until we entered the studio and we saw the graphics on Door #4 and George’s podium. They had done a good job at keeping it a secret. The taping did not actually fill up all the way, and neither did the afternoon taping (Tuesday’s show) so we were able to attend the other one as well right afterwards. We were very, very pumped.
Even during George’s warm-up Carol got George’s attention with her “Mama Mae” shirt. George was impressed. Sure enough, third of the first four, “Carol Thomas, Come on Down!” She was a great contestant with some feisty reactions. Still am disappointed that we didn’t get to see her spin the big wheel with those four inch nails.
Christopher took quite a long time to bid. He’d consult his friends behind him for about 20 seconds before he’d bid. The magic of TV makes it all look seamless. When he won in Half Off, he had a wonderful reaction—he ran around the stage for about 90 seconds, started flinging money, hugging the props and the models and anyone who would get in his way. I’m glad to see that they kept as much of it in as possible.
Honestly everything on TV is SO much harder than it looks. It’s impossible to hear any of the descriptions of any of the prizes, and you have so much adrenaline going through your body that you can’t even think straight. I can’t fault anybody for wanting more time to bid in CR, or making crazy bids, or thinking a trip in Bonkers is under $4,000.
Carol’s group developed a bit of a feud with Christopher (they seemed to believe that Christopher one-upped Carol more often than not, even though it was only twice), and at the end of the show, they were a little bit put out that Christopher won $101,000 but Carol only won $300. Carol was a class act though, and we caught up with her for a few moments after the show. Even with Christopher gone Carol did not want to one-up anybody else, she knew how it felt like.
During one of the breaks, right before they were setting up for the big wheel a man in the back row shouted out, “Drew! All I want is to shake the hand of James O’Halloran!” James obliged, it looks like they used that for the bump in for the second Showcase Showdown.
Mentioned before earlier in the week: they are doing a sort of in-studio variant on CSS now. During the break between the showcases and the reveal, George asks the audience to tell their bids to somebody close to them to see who wins. If anybody gets within $250 of a showcase, they should tell George. No word on what the “prize” is—never saw anybody claim it.
We talked with Christopher’s family somewhat after the show. They was in shock, they couldn’t believe it. They joked that now he had to take them all to Hawaii, and they said they had no idea how they would be able to keep this under wraps for two months. Congrats, Christopher—now you don’t have to keep it a secret anymore!
Carol got her cue card and $300. Obviously her family wishes she had a chance at the big money, but she loved the experience.