#1

As a phone-a-friend on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, there is no rule against googling. Instead of studying, I practiced googling all kinds of esoteric subjects for a few weeks. I helped my friend win $50K.

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#2

Not me, but an acquaintance was taped for “Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”

He was definitely smarter than a fifth grader. That doesn’t make for good television. It never went to air.

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#3

No one hails the cash cab. It’s all a setup Though the contestants don’t necessarily know they’re about to be one cash cab. They also pull you out of the cab after the initial scheme, set everything up then send you on your way. You also get a cheque, not the actual cash.

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#4

I was on a show where someone in the audience blurted out the answer before I could. They stopped production, removed the audience member, took me off stage, reset the *entire round* and started over. The kicker is I knew the answer anyway, and the new round had a category I knew absolutely nothing about. Audience member cost me $30k.

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#5

My mother won the first microwave that The Price Is Right gave as a prize. I was about 14 years old, and I cooked everything in that monster.

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#6

Wife and I tried out for Supermarket Sweep in 2021. We did a zoom call with the casting people but didn’t get the call. I think:

1. We got too many answers right.

2. We weren’t “enthusiastic” enough. They really went hard on this, like jump up and down and scream, give us more, MORE! MOOOORE!! It was exhausting.

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#7

I won the Showcase Showdown on The Price Is Right back in 2012. The day is LONG. Started standing in line around 6am, then you’re put through quick interviews. They ask what’s your name, where you’re from, and what do you do (work). I have no idea why they picked me because my answers were pretty unenthusiastic as I was just happy to be in the audience. My guess was that I was an young 23 year old woman with okay legs.

You truly do not know if you will be called to “come on down” until the moment of. Yes, the wheel is heavy. After the show, you’re pulled into a back room to discuss prize acceptance, paperwork, and taxes. You also sign an NDA declaring you will not tell others the outcome of your episode, which airs 3 months after filming.

The prizes are truly nice and high quality! I won 3 international trips in the Showcase and the locations and accommodations were incredible.

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#8

Closet I’ve come was on a radio competition, I was about 8. Yes, no game (not allowed to answer yes or no)

Host: what’s your name?

Me: Neil

Host: Neil?

Me: Yes.

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#9

I dated a guy who was on Chopped. He said it’s not as rushed. That they are allowed to have sips of alcohol if they’re using it in the food.

The one that bothered him was that they were super encouraged to take swipes at each other and he’s a really nice guy.

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#10

I was on Jeopardy in 2021 then again in 2023. It was literally the most fun of my life, plus I got lucky and won over $50k. When they asked me back in 2023 I had to turn them down because I won’t cross a picket line, and it broke my heart. Fortunately I got The Text again after the strike was over, but that time I lost. Before I went, my self talk was “Don’t worry about winning; all things equal, you will lose. Just don’t bring shame upon your family by betting or answering stupid.” My one idiot moment came from leaving the verb out of an FJ answer and asking “Who Nathaniel Hawthorne?” I took quite a bit of s**t for that.

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#11

On Jeopardy, there are tiny lights surrounding the game board that aren’t visible on camera. You can’t ring in until the lights flash and if you try before the lights flash, you get locked out for a couple of seconds. That’s why you see people rapidly clicking the signaling device.

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#12

I was on The Price is Right. The stage is much smaller and the colors (including Bob’s makeup) were much brighter than what you see on TV. They took my SSN in case I was picked for tax purposes. Everyone said to act enthusiastically to get picked, but I couldn’t fake it- not my personality. Despite that, I got picked. I must have been wearing a good outfit for TV or something. I ended up winning a lot of $ on Plinko.

Yes, the spinning wheel is heavy!

Edit – I did NOT kiss Bob. They kinda suggested you do it, but no way I was going to. I just wanted to get off that stage and call my Mom.

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#13

I had a cousin win my country’s version of survivor. He finished the final competition about 45 min before everyone else but the producers cut it in a way that made it seem like he barely won with just a few inches ahead of second place. But I guess that’s to be expected with reality tv.

Another fun fact – the host of the show tried to get all of the women to gang up and get my cousin voted out, and it was so bad that the producers had to step in and tell him to stop (that part didn’t get aired ofc).
Also the host of the show, who was a “respected” tv host in my country at the time, was a raging alcoholic during the whole trip

Edit: another thing I remembered was that they had to halt the shooting of the show and get the contestants into hotels on the mainland for around 2 months because a lot of the people got hit by some kind of virus or bacteria that made a lot of them extremely sick.

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#14

I was on Jeopardy a looong time ago and two of my BTS memories are: the production team was so supportive and kind, and I had to stand on a box. I won the last two games of the day, returned a couple weeks later after a tournament, and tanked hard.

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#15

I’ve been on six game shows from 1983 until around 1997. They mostly shot five episodes each day. So it’s a long day. They start with reviewing rules, your wardrobe, and signing contracts etc. Eventually you play practice games on the actual set. Food is provided all day long. Generally episodes were shot three months before airing and I didn’t receive any money or prizes until one month after airing. Of course you pay taxes on any prizes or cash. You can refuse any well. I refused a trip to Australia. Most travel prizes are for off-season and the window was only two months. My wife would have been eight and nine months pregnant in that window so she did not fell like being on such a long flight.

Not what you asked but other times I’ve posted this on Reddit I got asked what shows I was on. I’ll only mention the three where I won: Catch Phrase, Now You See It, The Weakest Link (daytime version).

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#16

I wasn’t on a game show, but I went to a taping of Wheel of Fortune. They taped 3 shows and I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it. You never realize just how much the audience has to clap during that show until you have to do it.

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#17

Was on Let’s Make a Deal.

1. The camera lenses tend to make the studio look larger than it is in real life, I was surprised how much smaller it felt sitting in the audience

2. They do a group interview thing before the show starts to help pick people and weed out the ones that won’t make for good TV

3. They have costumes there you can pick from but if you bring your own you’re more likely to get picked. They’ll make you ride a bus to the studio though so make sure your costume can fit in the seat (I learned that the hard way)

4. They tell everyone to stay smiling/hyped the whole time because if they picked you from the interview process, they can change their mind at the last minute before Wayne calls you if they think the cameras will pan to you and you look like a sour puss. This makes everyone there stay really energetic the whole time which I thought was clever.

5. Lastly, I know this makes me sound like a psycho but Wayne Brady smells *amazing* ?.

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#18

I was on Love Connection decades ago. They did keep us separated from the guys we dated before we revealed if we wanted a second date. They choose three guys and you have to pick one to go on the date. Plus they give you a long list of things you can’t do on the date, like go to the movies. They want you to interact. They give you notes on what to say based off of what you told them after the date. Chuck Woollery had cue cards. And it appeared he was looking at you but he was only looking at the cue cards.

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#19

I was in the audience for Deal or No Deal once. There were a couple running gags that didn’t make the TV cut. 
They also took the secrecy of the briefcase contents very seriously. One of the briefcases got dropped and it opened. I don’t think anyone saw the number inside but that was enough for every one of them to be taken back behind the stage and re randomized.

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#20

In the early 80s a friend’s family got to be on Family Feud and I got invited to be in the audience. Among many revelations (to a kid who had been raised on the TV) Richard Dawson was way more creepy in-person than he appears on TV and he had to stand behind the set pieces and chain-smoke in-between takes. It was so odd to see how he could just turn himself ‘on’ and ‘off’ like that. On camera, a totally different person, warm and friendly, off camera, sullen and hungover looking. He did not look like a happy man. What a trip that was.

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#21

I was on The Price is Right. Never expected to be picked and ended up winning the showcase. There is no trading your prizes for cash, it’s take it or leave it, and you have to pay sales/income tax on the winnings.

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#22

I was on Ink Master, which not exactly a game show for human canvases, involves a prize so I’m posting lol.

The show was set in NYC and even had city backdrops in the opener, but it was filmed in a studio in NJ. The artists all had personas to play, selected by the producers, and did their best to abide. Most of the judges barely stuck around set; they’d film their stuff in quick succession then left, and they edited to make it seem like they were always there. The art was real, obviously, but there was much more time than depicted spent on deciding. I remember it taking FOREVER to film the skull picks though, because we had to be given the skills with the name on the bottom, film that, wait, then read the names slowly. It took two days to film a 30 minute episode. All in all it was an amazing experience!

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#23

I was in the green room when one of the other episodes was being taped, and we had a CCTV with the live feed in it.  On a couple of occasions, the contestant in the bonus round didn’t even come close to winning the bonus round, so they re-taped the entire bonus round to nake it look like they aaaaaalmost won.

On a different show, they were having audio problems during one wrong answer I gave, so they had to re-record me giving the same wrong answer about five times.  After one take, I turned to the live audience and jokingly said, “gee, you’d think I’d get the right answer *one* of these times!”.

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#24

I was on Slime Time Live as a kid in the early 2000s, back when they filmed it at Universal Studios Florida. They picked the contestants that are going to play in advance and then put us in the crowd and announced us on air and told us to act surprised. The host was a jerk and wouldn’t talk to the contestants off air. The two cohosts were a lot nicer though. Also the slime is cold and takes multiple washings to get out of your hair.

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#25

I was on Cash Cab. They actually select and prescreen people under the guise of a separate show. They use this to gauge your knowledge and tailor the questions to your ability. As an example one of my questions was ” What large archipelago is made of over 15,000 islands? Another team on the same episode got What social media platform has a blue “F” as part of their logo? When you show up for the other show – they tell you there is an issue with the location and you need to take a cab to another site. Up pulls the cab and blamo!

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#26

Tried out for Who Wants to be a Millionaire years ago. Had to be in Manhattan first thing in the morning to take a test in a room of maybe 50 people. They quickly grade the test while asking who had the longest drive in, who’s the youngest/ oldest. Results come in and probably 35 people are out the door not scoring high enough. Myself and everyone who stayed back are told we would meet with the producers of the show, pretty sure they were just interns, and our pictures were taken. During the interview I talk about being a veteran and try to sound interesting lol. I mention the only question I struggled with was what cosmetic company is Halle Berry a spokesperson for? We wrap it up and I’m told I would be notified if I would be put in the contestant pool. A week later I get the no thank you card. Oh and on my way to the train station every other picture is Halle Barry and f*****g Revlon.

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#27

Not me on the show, but my dad

In the early days of Countdown (UK show) during the Richard Whiteley era (so mid 1980s), if the numbers game was a particularly tricky one they weren’t solved by Carol Vordermann immediately at the end of the round as portrayed on tv, rather, she would work on it as the programme continued and would record her solve later which would then be edited in to make it look like she had solved it there and then.

If it was a really difficult one, then Carol didn’t solve it at all, it was a behind-the-scenes guy called Michael Wylie that worked it out and then Carol would present it as though she had solved it herself.

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#28

I was on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 17-ish years ago. There was a lot of interesting stuff told to us by the show workers.

One thing they told us was to use the Ask The Audience lifeline early. They said pretty much everyone on the audience tried out for the show, but didn’t make it. As such, they told us we probably know more than them, so if it’s a high level question and we aren’t sure, the audience probably doesn’t know either.

They also said we should listen to the audience reactions, though. Since there was no time limit on answering questions, we should talk through the options. If we said something like “I’m kinda thinking the answer might be C” and a bunch of audience members gasp, at least rethink that option.

#29

The Wheel of Fortune (as in, the actual wheel itself) is **much** smaller than you think. When I walked out onto the stage with the contestant group for the first time during our tour of the studios, several of us gasped when seeing the wheel. It’s _maybe_ 6 feet in diameter. Maybe.

The camera adds much more than five pounds to that wheel — and so do the producers, who coach the contestants to reach absurdly to one side to begin the spin and sweep their arm as far as they can across to the other side.

The producers also coach contestants to shout. I mean **SHOUT.** That’s why everyone sounds like a screaming doofus on that show when they call out letters and solves. We’re all told relentlessly to shout like that.

#30

My sister tried out for big brother a few years ago and when they went in to do group interviews someone that worked for the show pulled her aside and said “don’t say anything to anyone but youre a VIP” and we both assumed it was either told to everyone to hype them up or told to everyone to try and stir things up.

#31

My wife and I were on “Let’s Make a Deal” a few years ago. Here are a few interesting things:

1) It looked like Wayne Brady picked us from the audience at random to be contestants in a game, but it wasn’t random. Before the show, when all the “audience” is waiting in line outside, they interview everybody. They’re looking for people who are enthusiastic, fun, and have great costumes. (If you’ve seen the show, you know.) My wife and I were enthusiastic, fun, and dressed up like mad scientists, so they picked during the show (seemingly at random).

2) People who come to the show, but don’t have costumes, are given costumes from the wardrobe department. They never get picked to be contestants.

3) We won $500. Wayne Brady handed us five $100 bills. At the end of the show, they took them back! Apparently they reuse them for each show. I’m not sure if it was real money or not, but it looked really real. After the show, we went to a little office and they told us we’d receive a check in the mail after the show had aired.

4) When we were playing the game (picking a number 1-7) we took a LOOOONG time to decide which number we wanted. When the show aired, it looked like we only took 3-4 seconds. They cut out our indecisiveness.

5) By the end of the hour, nobody in the audience is cheering anymore, because they aren’t going to pick any more contestants from the audience. If you watch the show you’ll notice they don’t really show the tired audience in the last 5-10 minutes.

6) They shoot it pretty much in real-time, meaning that they’ll shoot a segment where they pick an audience member to play a game, and then give them money, and then when a commercial should be happening the video-ing pauses for just 2 minutes — long enough for the real commercials to be inserted later. They don’t wait 10 minutes between segments or something. During that time, they play loud party music to keep the audience’s energy up.

7) I just remembered there is a TON of leg room in the audience bleachers. That’s because audience members have to stand and run down to the stage, and they don’t want anyone tripping on someone else’s feet.

#32

On let’s make a deal, they give you cash and someone crawls up to you after you’ve sat back down and takes it back lol. Also, the studio was super tiny! Way smaller than what it looks like on tv.

#33

On filming days you are not allowed to go anywhere alone once within the confines of the studio building – you have to be accompanied by a member of the production team at all times, including to use the toilet in order to prevent any possible chance of cheating.

I was a contestant on Millionaire and can confirm the above – they also make you sign numerous NDAs and speak to a psychiatrist prior to filming to ensure you are mentally prepared and able for any potential fame or large sums of money if you happen to win big.

#34

Not exactly a game show, but those House Hunters shows (my family’s old property was featured on a spinoff) feature people who’ve already selected a property weeks or months before production started. These shows just feature people d*cking around making up complaints about houses and then going “I guess we’ll go with this one we already own!”.

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#35

Waiting time is so long…

Also the taping is usually months before you can see it. And there is multiple taping on the same day, sometimes as much as 10 a day !

Edit : Mastermind.

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#36

Wasn’t quite a game show, but some friends and I did the Red Bull FlugTag in Tampa in 2008.

They had an audition / application phase, where you had to drop off your plans and what you were going to try to design to fly off the pier

they chose us, and about 30 other people. We had to agree to news interviews and promotions, that were setup by the marketing team. We were building our craft in my backyard, and the news came out to my home a couple times.

The day of the event blew my mind… there was hundreds of thousands people there… it was nuts. Hundreds of boats, people in the parking garages watching, the hotels all had people out on the balconies… It was absolutely insanity.

They lined us up around the block, like a parade, and everyone did their skit and went off the barge. It was a LOT higher up than I thought it was going to be. I think it was between 30-40 feet off the water, it was pretty high

They gave us all safety briefings, telling us how to tell the lifeguards on jet ski’s that we were ok (or hurt)

They keep it quiet, but a lot of people got hurt. Tampa General Hospital was just across the water from where the event was (Tampa Convention Center). The ER had a quite a few people in it from the event, including my cousin (who was the pilot). Cousin shattered his nose, broke it big time

I don’t think they do that event anymore, heard lots of people got hurt, one person broke their back too

Was super fun, I have some videos on Youtube from the event.

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#37

A friend of mine interned at a radio station in high school. I got to help him with some of the rush hour time slot productions. When the DJ did the “caller number 9 is the winner” thing, he’d just pick the first person that had the most upbeat and radio-friendly voice. They splice and edit the sound bites together while the music or commercials are playing to make it sound like they were the 9th caller when they were usually the second or third.

#38

I was a contestant on The Weakest Link – the American version with the main lady. It was their HS episode!

What you don’t see is a HUGE clock counting down right in front of all of the contestants. It’s very nerve racking. Also, they told us she picks on the ones she likes and boy, she loved me. So much never made it to air but it was so much fun!

Also, none of us were random people that tried out. We were all agency kids. Whether modeling or acting, all of us had representation. It helped the process with minors so they knew we were screen tested.

#39

Reality competition shows use a lot of recruits. People who didn’t audition and were pulled from different sources. The show I was on when I was 15, only me and 1 other person
auditioned. One person was literally at her little brother’s soccer game and someone came up and asked her if she wanted to do a show.

#40

I was on Masterminds, Tug of Words and soon The 1% Club. I won 10K on Tug of Words and the other two I did really well but I didn’t make any money.

One of the things that is very surprising is how long it actually takes to shoot an episode. It’s 22 minutes of air time but it takes a little over an hour maybe an hour and a half. We do the commercial breaks live. But a lot of the game is just shooting reactions and doing extra takes when the game show host flubs a line. About the same amount of time was shooting the game show host re-reading stuff as it was us playing the game.

One thing about the 1% club that was interesting is that they asked a question and it’s silent You have 30 seconds or whatever to answer on your iPad. Then they don’t let you know if you get it right or wrong but they reshoot the exact same scene but the host makes jokes. They do this so you can concentrate on answering and then they splice the two together later. Since that show had 100 people it was definitely the longest shoot it was about 4 hours. Luckily I was in the game until the very end so I wasn’t like one of those people who missed the first question who had to sit there for 3 and 1/2 hours doing nothing.

You also have to get there insanely early and wait wait wait.

The call time for all three of my shows was like 6:30 I think? And then you maybe shoot around 11:00 or 12:00. You’re pretty tired and exhausted all day because you probably didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before for me because I came up from San Diego and because I had to get up at 4:30 to get ready.

Finally I’d say that they actually do want you to win and they try as hard as they can to prep you to do well. They honestly want charismatic funny charming people to entertain. They have it in the budget for you to win it’s the advertiser’s money!

I was also in two different commercials. One for tug of words and masterminds. That was pretty cool. I’m even on some commercial ad for some word game that has nothing to do with tug of words they just used my footage from my episode to advertise a s****y app. I’ve gotten tagged on that about a hundred times on Facebook lol.

Oh that’s the last thing you don’t get paid until it airs on TV cuz that’s where your money comes from. I did one show in October and got paid in February.

If you want to check out my tug of words just go to YouTube and search Tug of words I’m the first video. Me and my roommate Jim won the 10 grand!

#41

The last bucket in the Bozo show really doesn’t have a brand new $50 bill in it…or a Huffy Bicycle…

#42

Not me, but a coworker of mine was on The Price is Right and won the showcase showdown. They made her redo her reaction to winning because the first time wasn’t good enough. She could also pick and choose which of the prizes she wanted.

She could tell everyone that she was on the show – but not the results – until after it aired, though I’m assuming that’s standard.

#43

I was a winner on *Wheel of Fortune* 10 years ago. There’s only one big wheel, they have to transport it to other taping locations if not in L.A. (I was), and that f****r is **heavy**. As part of prep for the actual taping, they have everyone practice the proper way to spin it – left hand grips the padded rail in front of you, right hand pulls the wheel toward you and continues the momentum to push the wheel along its spin. They tell us not to try aiming for a specific space because it’s too obvious and too hard to control.