Who Wants to Be a Millonaire - 3rd time's a charm

Standing On Line
October 23rd, I stood on line outside of the ABC studio where Who Wants to a Millionaire is taped. Frustrated by my last audition experience, I had immediately signed up for another day of testing and taping. Standing outside yesterday with the 200 or so similarly minded people, I listened to many conversations. This time they didn't annoy me. This time, the people were normal and were discussing the fun things they would do if they won a million dollars. Standing with all those people, listening to them dream out loud, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of help. Being raised Jewish, my parents never took me to stand in line to see Santa Claus at the mall but I imagine it must have felt a lot like the line I was standing in yesterday. The line to audition for Millionaire is the most hopeful place on earth.

Testing
Inside the studio, we all had a chance to warm up while everybody got settled and once we did, the test was administered. Production assistants handed out #2 pencils, Scantron sheets, and closed envelopes containing the multiple choice test that would determine who moved on. We had 10 minutes to complete 30 questions. I finished in about 6 minutes and looked over my answers twice. Because I hadn't passed two times before I was expecting not to do so well and I felt ambivalent about how I did. I didn't expect to pass.

Taping
After the tests were collected, the rest of the studio audience was shown to their seats. Paul Mecurio warmed up the crowd and explained what was expected of us as a Millionaire audience. He's quite funny and very handsome. He's good with the crowd. He is a professional comedian and has won awards for his writing the Daily Show. I advise you check out his website. Anyway, he got us in the mood to cheer and clap and behave as if the Who Wants to be a Millionaire studio was the most exciting place on earth. This week was Movie week so all of the questions were about movie trivia and all of the contestants were movie geeks. Because it was movie week, we were given a free subscription to Netflix. Yee hooo. Three months. Nothing to sneeze at.

Some of the questions were ridiculously easy and it was frustrating to see people miss them. However, there were some real doozies. I don't want to give anything away. You'll have to wait until March to see those shows. But we did get to see one guy walk away with $250,000. He was a nice guy and everybody was rooting for him.

Results
Paul Mecurio did not announce who passed the test until the third taping. At the first commercial break, he announced the first three contestants moving and I was the third one. When he called my name I wooted and almost choked on the butterscotch candy they handed out before the third taping. After the taping was finished, I was interviewed in the same studio by a production assistant. She liked the fact that I was smiling and she liked the fact that I met my husband playing bar trivia. She liked me enough to recommend me for the on camera interview.

I kind of remember what I said. But I was so excited, I can't remember how it all came out. And on top of that I was slighly hungover from the night before and I wasn't wearing any makeup (because I didn't think I would pass) and my skin was breaking out a little bit. Ack.

Hopefully, in two or three weeks I'll receive a post card telling me they want me for the show. But it could go the other way.

Everyone I know, has their fingers crossed.