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People Who’ve Participated In TV Shows Reveal Some Hidden Secrets That Regular Viewers Don’t Know (19 Posts)
Game shows have entertained us since the early days of television. There's something about watching regular people win cash and prizes. It feels real. Relatable. But making a game show is a huge endeavor, and there's often a huge crew behind our beloved productions, working hard to create a worthwhile experience for viewers.
Recently, redditor olymp1a wanted to learn about what goes into the making of these shows. So they created a post, asking, "People who have been on TV game shows, what are some 'behind the scenes' secrets that regular viewers don't know about?" To everyone's amusement, the call was answered.
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#1
"When my wife was a kid, she won a lifetime supply of Butterfinger candy bars. It was two cases. Not the cardboard flats you can buy at bulk stores, but two actual factory crates like a grocery store would get...so several hundred candy bars. She said when she first got them, she felt ripped off because while it was a lot, she was only a kid, so there was no way it was a 'lifetime' supply.
"She made it through half the first case before she started giving them away to anyone that would take them. By the end of the second case, she was throwing them away.
"Now, as an adult several decades later, she still won’t eat Butterfingers. So I guess it really was all the Butterfingers she would ever need for the rest of her life."
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One of the Reddit users who shared their experience was Epic-Hamster -- they appeared on X-Factor. "I auditioned because a lot of people in my life told me I was a good singer and because one of my mates who was great wouldn't go without me," Epic-Hamster told Bored Panda.
To them, the audition seemed "incredibly contrived" and the showrunners gave off a vibe like they weren't going for actual talent.
Before performing in front of celebrity judges, the singers must go through 'off-camera' judges first, meaning that every bad singer we see on the show has already been told they are better than the many talented ones not deemed TV-worthy.
"I find the 'off-camera' judges to be a disgusting practice as it then seems like the people who are terrible singers or straight-up mentally ill are just sent through to be laughed at," Epic-Hamster explained. "Whereas if the on-screen judges where the first it would just be part of auditions. The disgusting part is the choice to portray someone awful for views instead of them showing up."
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#2
My teacher was on wheel of fortune Australia and he won a life supply of wd40. It turns out with average usage a can of wd40 lasts twenty years, so a life's supply is four cans.
Interestingly, game shows started to appear on radio and television in the late 1930s. Both the first TV game show, Spelling Bee, and the first radio game show, Information Please, were broadcast in 1938. However, the first major success in the game show genre is considered to be Dr. I.Q., a radio quiz that began in 1939.
Throughout the 1950s, as television cemented itself in popular culture, game shows quickly became a fixture. Daytime game shows would be played for lower stakes, targeting stay-at-home housewives and higher-stakes programs would air in primetime. During the late 1950s, high-stakes games such as Twenty-One and The $64,000 Question boomed in popularity, however, the rise of quiz shows proved to be short-lived. In 1959, the public discovered that many of the most popular higher stakes game shows were rigged and ratings declines led to most of the primetime games being canceled.
#3
I was on Wheel of Fortune. You have to get there at 5 AM where you draw straws with other contestants to decide when you will film. They film the entire week of episodes in 1 day. Pat Sajak is incredibly friendly and interacted with us on every break. The wheel is HEAVY.
Primetime revivals of classic daytime game shows began to emerge in the mid-2010s. In 2016, ABC packaged the existing Celebrity Family Feud, which had returned in 2015, with new versions of To Tell the Truth, The $100,000 Pyramid, and Match Game in 2016. New versions of Press Your Luck and Card Sharks followed in 2019. TBS launched a marijuana-themed revival of The Joker's Wild, with Snoop Dogg as the host in 2017, complimenting the addition of original game concepts that appeared near the same time, including Awake, Deal or No Deal, Child Support, Hollywood Game Night, 1 vs. 100, and so on.
In March 2020, production on the four longest-running game shows in North America (Family Feud, Jeopardy, The Price Is Right, and Wheel of Fortune) were temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Family Feud, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune have resumed production; however, because The Price is Right requires a studio audience in order to properly play the game, its production is still on hold.
#4
I was on "Who wants to be a millionaire", and its all scripted. The filming took half a day for 30 minutes of film. When you win the intro round, you are taken out to get your make up on, and then they instruct you how to act when you celebrate.
The reason the audience is so completely useless (And why you see so many press wrong on obvious answers) is because 20-30% of the audience is friends and family to the other 7 contestants who are waiting for their turn. We spent two days in the studio, and if the initial contestant loses, the others get their chance. If one contestant goes far and takes a lot of time, no one else gets a chance, so the audience tells the wrong answer on purpose.
#5
I was on Cash Cab. You can't just hail a cab in New York which turns out to be the Cash Cab. There is a vetting process, but you don't know you are going to be on the show so the reaction is genuine. Also, there is alot of awkward silence time while he is listening to the producer in his ear. There is a cameraman riding shotgun unseen on TV. The money he gives is prop money for TV. They mail you a check after the show airs. Ben Bailey was genuinely a nice guy.
#6
The dishes the MasterChef contestants make are normally stone cold by the time they get to the tasting table, so the judges usually taste the elements of each dish as they're walking around the kitchen during the cooking stage. This allows them to have some idea how the finished dish will taste and to see the contestants' proficiency with kitchen equipment
#7
I was a guest on The Tyra Banks Show back in 2005. The 'stylist' dressed me and the other guests in clothes that still had the tags on. They made sure to hide the tags so they could return the items after the show.
#8
I attended a taping of Conan several years ago. As soon as the show is finished Conan grabs a mic and roams the aisles while singing, “This is the after-the-show song that nobody knows about” or something similar. Definitely a crooner, and I openly swooned because come on, Conan is a dream and a treasure.
#9
I'm a film carpenter and I worked on big brother. The "house" is actually inside of a huge warehouse. I found it kinda creepy that when they lead a contestant to the games room, they put a black bag over their head and you're not allowed to talk to them also the camera alleys mean that anyone working on the show can just wander behind the walls and watch the contestants in any room. I will never understand why people apply to be on that show. It looks stressful.
#10
Not really a game show but I was an audience member with my class for America’s funniest videos. They literally had empty plates/cups at some tables and a light up sign telling us when to laugh.
Sometimes they would even move audience members depending on how well they laugh. This field trip was for our school drama club btw
#11
They let the other girl in the Showcase Showdown (Price is Right) rebid after the audience booed her original bid (something silly low like $10,000). When it aired, they cut her original bid and showed only her second, winning bid. I lost.
#12
Was in the audience at a Food Network taping and Iron Chef America really is a 60-minute competition. That's not fudged. The judging on the other hand takes forever.
#13
"Earlier this year I was on House Hunters, and obviously, everything was staged. You buy the house first and then you get to go on the show. You can always tell what house they’re going to buy because it’s always the empty one. The house touring was fake for us, at least when we did it, because one of the houses didn’t want us filming there, so we had to get a fake house to tour. I remember we were filming us going somewhere in the car, and I was dropped off in a cornfield.
"The filming crew were really nice and took us out for lunch. They were all super fun to be around and made us laugh during cuts. But the filming process lasted over three weeks, and it’s only a 20-minute show, so it was definitely tiring. I remember everyone, even people I barely knew, watched the show, and it was kind of embarrassing, but still a fun experience overall."
#14
A work colleague of mine was one of the couples in married at first sight.
She had a horrible experience, needed counseling afterwards and is still receiving an “appearance fee” (read hush money) even though her season aired like 5 years ago.
Her words: unReal may as well be a documentary
#15
It’s not a game show, but I was at a group date for The Bachelorette. As you can imagine, the show is heavily produced. They only aired about 5% of what actually happened on the date. I have a really reactive face, so they used a bunch of my reactions in the show, but they were completely out of context because they cut all of the actual drama out of the date, and only aired the vanilla stuff. So one contestant says something like “women are always right” and they show me making this gasping face, that’s totally out of place haha.
#16
Not a gameshow but was in the audience for the steve Harvey show.He a shallow and fragile individual. We were told we could ask him questions between takes if he was in a good enough mood - which he would only be in if we reacted well during takes. We also were not allowed to ask him any questions about his teeth or mustache. He also said that his lifelong dream was always to just be on television and that's it.
#17
I was a contestant on the Price is Right. They don't choose people at random. They interview everyone in the audience for about 30 seconds earlier in the day and decide who to pick based off that.
#18
I was in the audience of Polish versions of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. To prevent cheating you have to pass 2 metal detector Gates before entering studio. No phone or other electronic allowed. Everything takes sooo long here. Episode lasts around 30 minutes, but recording it - 2-3 hours, there are only 3 episodes recorded every day. Once the big screen behind host back broke and we had to sit for 4 hours until it was repaired. At least we got paid extra. Friend you phone in one of the lifelines is sitting in the same building as studio, just other room. I've also been author of few question for Jeopardy (which is called Va Banque here, pretty badass name). Most of the authors had to be Ph.D. Or experienced experts in their field, I was accepted as a student just because they were short on economy and mathematics question. Sadly it was only one-time gig, but it was pretty fun seeing contestants trying to find question for answers I wrote. It also paid pretty nice, 100 zlotys (so around $25) for each 5 question from 1 category which was like 15 minutes of work.
#19
I auditioned for X-Factor.
You don’t go to the celebrity judges first you go in front of some “off camera” judges.
So every terrible and horrible singer you see on the show has already been told they are better than the many talented ones not deemed “tv worthy” which makes it a lot more disgusting to me.
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