First episode taped of our trip, last to air!
There was a woman just ahead in line from us that we were sure would be picked. She was pumping us up the whole time in line to that point. She had a great reaction to Stan, who asked her if she watched the show a lot. She enthusiastically replied she taped the show every day! Stan asked her what her favorite game was, and she paused awkwardly, and after a moment, replied, "Uh, spin the wheel!" She didn't get picked.
At the first break Drew asked Jaimy where she served at. IIRC she replied it was a Hooters-style restaurant. Drew got a few good jibes in.
Double Cross was severely edited down. The touchscreen is very finnicky and jumpy, and Valencia had some trouble with it. I'd estimate she spent over 60 seconds trying to set the price.
Tape stopped for reshoots twice--both were incidents with Yolanda.
The first was in the break just before the first SCSD. Either tape wasn't to speed, or the cameras missed it, but some technical error meant they lost Yolanda's Come on Down. George cracked jokes about it, likened it to faking the moon landing, and they had us rerecord Yolanda's come on down.
The second time was during the fifth One-Bid. Yvette bid $1400, and then Yolanda immediately said "$1399", paused a moment, and then said, "Actually, wait!". I assume she wasn't listening to Yvette (it is cacophonous in there, you cannot hear a darned thing! No wonder everybody asks for bid recaps). They paused tape. Drew said that they would check to see if the bid had finished registering on the monitor before she said "Wait!". After a moment he said that he had gotten signal that it was good and she could rebid once they started tape again. The audience cheered.
After a couple minutes Mike Richards came out with another member of the production staff, again to cheers. Mike told her that they had reviewed the tape, and unfortunately her bid was registered. For fairness purposes they had to accept it. What's more, they'd have to reshoot Yolanda making her bid. In the finished episode you see Yolanda confidently bid $1399 and the audience gives her a larger-than normal cheer.
During the break Drew talked about how painful that was, but how as a host he wasn't allowed to say anything. He gave an example that if it
was $1399, and if he said "Are you
sure you want to do that?", and the contestant changed their bid, there was an argument that he could be held responsible for costing the contestant the $500.
The moral of the story is don't be afraid to ask what the last bid was. And, if you're in the audience, cheer at everything.
Loved, loved, loved everything about the trip. My favorite part had to have been meeting everybody in line and getting a feel for them. Talked with Kevin for about 10 seconds in line, he came with his college friends. We were going up and down the line quite a bit just meeting people. Everybody had a unique story, and knowing the story of those around you the whole time in the studio makes the show so much more immersive. 10/10 trip, can't wait to go back!
