What’s cooking at the Ovens Auditorium?

You may have heard about the Price is Right, Live! show that rolled through town there a couple weeks ago – awesome event. I went, and it made for a really fun Friday night.

When my boyfriend (Chase) and I first saw the ads announcing that the Price is Right was coming to the Ovens Auditorium, we bought tickets right away. We were all like “can’t wait to meet Drew Carey”, “I’m totally going to win a car”, “OMG, we could win a trip around Europe”, “I hope I don’t look fat on TV”. We were SO excited.

We DVR’ed episodes to study prices the 2 weeks prior, I pulled out items from my pantry and asked Chase to guess how much he thought it cost, and quickly corrected him when he was totally off. We even researched online ways to ace the interview to be picked to “Come on Down!” (since it’s not actually random at all).

Then came the week of the show…Chase realized that the logo on the website looked a little different, and included “live” in the title. We quickly realized something was off. Turns out, no Drew Carey, no trip to Europe, and no TV was happening for us on Friday night.

The Price is Right Live is not the Price is Right. It is a traveling show that is associated with the real show, but on a much lower scale. They travel around the United States and set up a mini studio on stages like the Ovens Auditorium, and are emceed by D-list celebrities such as Jerry Springer or Joey Fatone (I think I’d rather meet Joey than Drew anyway).

So, with our dreams of being on TV and winning a once in a lifetime vacation shattered, we lowered our expectations and decided to make the best of it – how bad could it be?

…It was amazing.

Everyone, including us, was super excited to be there. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t the real show – people were stoked, the energy was unreal.

We arrived at the auditorium almost 2 hours prior to show time to register to be a contestant, and the line stretched around the building – we couldn’t even see the end.

There were groups of people that created their own shirts, just like on TV. Plinko jokes galore, and even some that referenced Drew Carey (they must not have realized he wouldn’t be there, poor souls). We also created our own shirts – duh.

When we finally got to the front of the line after an hour and a half, we filled out our registration cards, threw them in a basket, and hoped we would be selected when the time came. It was like entering the goblet of fire, so exhilarating. We also received our name tags at this time – arguably the most exciting moment of the night. Mine is now located prominently on my refrigerator and yes, it makes me smile daily.

Once inside the auditorium, we realized alcohol was being served, and this was about to be a par-tay.

Entering the auditorium it felt like an adult pep rally was about to begin. We were encouraged to yell, scream, and help contestants guess the right price. I think they pumped that place with energy somehow.

Now, to be honest, there were quite a few differences between the real show and the live show.  It was like “Honey I Shrunk the Price is Right”. The prizes were smaller, considerably smaller.  Instead of $10,000 cash, it was $500 cash. Instead of an entire new kitchen, there was refrigerator. Instead of a trip to Europe, there was a trip to Las Vegas.

They also selected a new round of 4 contestants for each round of bidding. In between rounds they also announced 5 audience members to receive random gift cards (Subway, Target, etc). In total they probably called at least 60 names, between those selected to come up and bid, and those selected to receive a gift card.

Towards the end, 2 extremely lucky audience members were selected to participate in the showcase showdown – talk about sitting on the edge of your seat.

Ultimately, we never saw our names come up on the big screen – major bummer. The showcase actually ended up being really impressive, and it even included a BRAND NEW CAR, but to win the entire showcase the contestant had to get within $100 of the actual price. One lady guessed within $600 and won everything except the car (trip to Hollywood to go to the real Price is Right, and a trip to Hawaii).

It was my first time at the Oven’s Auditorium, and I’d totally go back. Well, maybe not to Dancing with the Stars Live! sounds like another TV show doppelganger, but hey, if you’re into that kind of thing…