[scrubby]

It might be different now, but I'm pretty sure back in the Bob Barker era contestant selection wasn't random. The entire audience had to introduce themselves to the producer one by one and answer his questions about where they were from, what they did, and if they were there with anyone. The people selected were fairly attractive and charismatic. The selection also leaned toward people who came with larger groups. I assume so they could get camera shots of cheering and helping during the games.

[larrymcp]

Yep, it's still like that now, too! I was on The Price is Right a few months ago, and I got called to "come on down" to be a contestant.

Before the show, producer Stan Blits greets every member of the audience while they're waiting in line. He chats with each audience member (for about 20 seconds) to gauge their liveliness & enthusiasm. As he's chatting with each person, he gives a subtle hand signal to an intern who is standing behind him with a notepad. For each audience member who he thinks might make a good contestant, the intern writes down the person's name on the notepad.

After the audience is seated, he continues to refine the list by standing on the side of the stage and observing the potential contestants in their seats. He checks to see which ones are still energetic and cheering while they're sitting in the audience too.

[dmix]

So that could be easily gamed too is what you're saying.

[katastic]

Well, people smart enough to be the kind of contestant they want, are still fulfilling what the producers want.

[colmvp]

Given your comment, I wonder if there's an interesting list of people who have been on the Price is Right. For example, one person I can think of is Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad) who said: "It looks like I'm on some serious crack. I downed about six cans of red bull because I knew they wanted people with energy. It worked, but I could not sit still. It was not healthy."

[laretluval]

This is definitely worth looking up on Youtube.

[jaytaylor]

https://youtu.be/_SEL27xiJGQ

He appears to be very excited indeed.

[jacquesm]

That much caffeine is a serious health risk.

[stordoff]

Six cans of Red Bull is about 480mg caffeine (assuming six 250ml cans at 32mg/100ml caffeine). Not exactly recommended (and may be unpleasant), but it shouldn't be a serious risk to the average person either (it's about the same as three strong cups of coffee).

[buttcoinslol]

I drink that much caffeine before noon every day. It's 3 cups of coffee.

edit: I suspect the ~200g of sugar is worse on some level.

[schrodinger]

LD50 is 150-200mg per kg, so 480mg from 6 cans of redbull shouldn't be a serious risk.

[hxta98596]

The contestant selection for the Price is Right television show isn't random. You're spot on, a producer selects the contestants based on a quick interview with each audience member before the show. Even if the selection process has changed recently this story is from 2008. The article is wrong. And this website appears to be spun click traffic farming site, way to go Hacker News.

[emodendroket]

Those words link to the FAQ of the show. http://priceisrightlive.com/faqs/

> All contestants’ names are randomly drawn prior to start of show. If a person selected as a contestant is a non-ticket holder, they will be brought inside the venue by producers to await their turn as contestant.

Even if, as you say, this citation is too recent and reflects some more recent change, and the selection wasn't literally random, he'd still have to somehow be chosen, which doesn't seem entirely within his control.

[hxta98596]

That link is not to the Price is Right TV show. The "Price is Right" brand has a traveling live theater production as well called Price is Right Live. Tickets to that cost money. Tickets for the real TV show in Los Angeles are free. Thanks for playing.

[emodendroket]

This seems like an excessive level of condescension for a lack of familiarity with the Price is Right expanded universe.

[Dylan16807]

What, "thanks for playing"? It's a sparkling bright opportunity for that joke, not a put-down.

[chris_wot]

Never thought I’d read the words “Price is Right” and “expanded universe” in the one sentence on HN...

[freeflight]

Let me add to the amazement by pointing out that there even seems to be "Price is Right fanfiction" out there [0]. Tho it's hosted on angelfire and the texts are saved as word documents, which is either really odd or really smart, depending on the intentions of the creator.

[0] http://www.angelfire.com/funky/plinkoman/fan_fiction.html

[pbhjpbhj]

You "corrected" someone out of ignorance who knew your correction was wrong. I think you need to swallow your pride rather than complain about their being condescending; feeling humiliated is your brains way of learning to be more careful in the future.

I expect I made a mistake here too, that would be normal in this sort of conversation.

[emodendroket]

> feeling humiliated is your brains way of learning to be more careful in the future.

Yeah, I'm really humiliated here. How could I possibly confuse The Price is Right and The Price is Right Live? Gonna be tough to live that one down.

[acjohnson55]

Agreed! My step-uncle, an actor and extremely outgoing guy, managed to impress the producer enough to get into the small selection pool of contestants and get on the snow. He won a bunch of stuff, but had to turn it down because he had no space for a bunch of random merch and didn't want to pay taxes on it. It can actually be a big burden on these shows that don't do cash prizes.

[paulpauper]

cash would mean smaller profit margins and less of a spectacle

A 60 inch TV sounds more impressive than $200

[dmix]

You're missing the biggest reason: advertising. Getting your product on the show is great for brand awareness and probably costs quite a bit, plus free products.

[Spooky23]

TV shows are always like this. Random would mean that really tall people or really fat people would get on, which would look weird — people look bigger on TV, and most TV people tend to be smaller.

[ec109685]

Yes, if you go with a big enough group, they guarantee (at least back in 1998) that one person from the group would get on.

[jedberg]

Yeah it was like you say. My cousin was on Price is Right. He came with a group of 20, and they were guaranteed that at least one of their group would be in contestants row.

[birken]

I once went with a group of 20 that was registered in advance and nobody from our group was called (but I think we were guaranteed seats and didn't have to wait in line). I think the 20+ group thing is an urban legend, the producers can really choose whoever they want. However the way the show is done, if a person has a big cheering section that is good for the show, so I imagine if you come in a group your chance of getting selected is a lot higher than if you come alone.

If memory serves correctly they interviewed us in groups of 5, and for the group I was in the whole "interview" lasted about 3 seconds. They lined us up, looked us over, then passed us on. Still quite a fun experience, and though I didn't get called I was still terrified the whole time I might get called so the adrenaline was running.

[wpietri]

Yes. I was there with a group of 30. They dismissed most of us in seconds, but took longer to talk with a few of our liveliest members. The one they talked the longest with got called as a contestant.

[dmix]

What do they say? Just small talk like where youre from and whatd you do for a living?

[wpietri]

That's the sort of thing they started with. But that was just to have something to talk about. It was much more about tone than content.