“Come on down! You’re the next contestant on The Price Is Right!”
It’s a phrase that Sara Cole, 32, of Little Rock, heard watching the long-running daytime television game show with her great grandmother, grandmother and parents. (“All my family is into game shows,”she says. “So I grew up on them.”)
But when she heard that phrase in August, she was at the CBS studio in Hollywood.
And it was directed at her.
“Sara Cole! Come on down!
You’re the next contestant on the Price Is Right!” the announcer bellowed, sending Sara, who had attended the taping with family, scurrying to Contestants’ Row while high-fiving fellow audience members.
Now, I knew that bubbly, sweet Sara, a friend of mine who manages Pei Wei Asian Diner in the Midtowne Shopping Center, was going to be attending a taping. I even coached her on wardrobe, based on the show’s selection patterns (“Wear a college shirt! Or a military uniform!” She settled on jeans and a regular top). However, I didn’t know she was an actual contestant until the Oct. 9 episode aired - she kept good on her confidentiality agreement.
You know how on TV, it looks like audience members are randomly called to play?
In actuality, Sara says, “The process is kind of lengthy.” It involves ordering free but in-demand tickets online two months ahead of taping. Showing up at the studio at 8 a.m. Standing in a long line. Going through security. Signing agreements. Taking individual and group pictures.
Standing in another line. Talking to the producer and an assistant in group interviews.
Sara thinks an interview is where she got the producer’s attention: “When I told him I manage a restaurant, he said, ‘Oh no, you probably don’t have time to watch The Price Is Right.’ I said, ‘Oh, no no. My boyfriend knows at 10 o’clock, he has to change ESPN Sports center to The Price Is Right.’ He started laughing and he asked me more questions.”
Still, she didn’t know she had been selected until the announcer hollered it out during the show. And Sara wasn’t just a contestant. She was the last contestant that day with only one chance to come closest to the price of the item up for bid - without going over - and get on stage.
The item: jewelry. A sterling silver cuff bracelet and ring from celebrity designer Mauricio Serrano. Sara as the first bidder guessed $700. The other women in the panel bid lower amounts, and Sara couldn’t believe no one “dollared” her - (that’s Price Is Right speak for bidding $1 higher than someone).
The actual retail price: $1,200. Sara won, joining host Drew Carey on stage and telling him where she’s from.
He said, “All the way from Little Rock, everybody! Came here just to win this …!”
This, the announcer enthused, was a “25-cubic-foot French door refrigerator” with a “pull-out bottom freezer, automatic ice maker and pull out shelves!” And there was stuff to stock the appliance too: “We’ll cover your food bills for one whole year - that’s 52 weeks worth of groceries!”
“I was like, ‘Oh, shucks,’” Sara recalls thinking with a laugh. “I was honestly having so much fun. It’s an experience like no other. I’ll probably never get to do it again, and most people don’t get to do it. So I was really grateful and really happy to be on.
“But then again, I was like, ‘Aw, man, some groceries?!’” Not too exciting for someone who works around food all day.
The announcer wasn’t done.
“But, Sara, you’re the last one to come up on stage and it should be special don’t you think? How about a brand new car?!”
Now that was exciting. So much so that she ran away from Carey (breaking a rule they were told pre-show: “Whatever you do, don’t run away from Drew!”) when they unveiled the Hyundai Sonata GLS sedan.
She played Rat Race where the object is winning wind-up mechanical rats - up to three - by guessing the price of products within a certain dollar amount and then having said rats place first (the car), second (the groceries) or third (the fridge) in a race around a track. In the event of a rodent trifecta, she’d win all three prizes.
But it wasn’t looking like Sara would win any prizes. She was off - by one mere penny - on the price of the $5.49 Aspercreme pain relief cream. And she was off by $4 on the price of the $49 tabletop foosball game.
“When you’re watching it on TV, you think it’s a lot easier,” she says. “When you’re on stage, there’s so much pressure. Everyone in the audience is yelling out numbers.”
But luckily, she swept through the next task - guessing an upright bagless vacuum cleaner price. Sara had one rat in the race, selecting the pink one. And she was tickled pink when it finished in first place, winning her the car!
Even if her spinning of the big wheel didn’t land her in the Showcase Showdown, she had also won the aforementioned jewelry and the vacuum cleaner. (But, “I didn’t win the Aspercreme,” she says with a laugh.)
Not that she has any of those prizes yet (didn’t you, like me, always think winners got to speed off the studio lot into the Price Is Right sunset that very day?). The smaller winnings will be shipped anytime after the air date up to three months after the taping. As for the car, it will be provided by a local dealership (which will also choose the color, etc.) within the same time frame. After Sara pays California taxes. And she’ll also pay the Arkansas taxes, registration, tags, etc. and have to declare the prize as income on her taxes.
“I can’t complain, I got a brand-new car, you know?” she says, estimating her prize will cost her about $4,500.
Still, not bad for a vehicle worth more than $20,000. That’s equivalent to 3,642 tubes of Aspercreme.
Right away, email: jchristman @arkansasonline.com What’s in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman ’hood.
Style, Pages 29 on 10/15/2013