The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: clanky06 on October 14, 2007, 01:54:07 AM
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minarcik - 5:21 PM ET October 13, 2007 (#51292 of 51298)
Merv Griffin's Crosswords: Chicago NBC Tryouts
About 350 people showed up for the tryouts today. After a test of 30 written questions, about 50 will be going to LA.
I think I was one of the lucky ones because after the test was over and graded, the "winners" were selected to appear for a brief 2 minute TV camera interview. Whether everybody who went before the camera will be going was not clear however.
Of the 30 questions which were asked, the first 20 were incredibly easy, like Monday level cluing, e.g.:
Do sum math (3 letters)
Clips and rounds (4 letters)
Like Hendrix's lady (4 letters)
What a white flag symbolizes (_ _ U _ _)
River way down under (4 letters)
The last 10 questions however, imho, were quite difficult, and I doubt if I got even half of them right, but the first 20 were slam dunks, so a cru veteran would get, mebbe, around 23-25 questions correct. Apparantly this was enough for an easy pass, although they did not announce what the passing score was. It may have depended on the number of people there.
Ty Treadway, the show's host was there, and made everybody feel good, and NBCs LA team was also there and made the whole ordeal a lot of fun, even for those who did not make it to the next step. There were also some fun mini-contests going on in which I won two MGC t-shirts. It was amazing that even though only a small fraction of the tryout people made it today, all 3 people sitting by me, contestants # 7,8,9,10, made it! I was #9. No we did not copy, however it would have been incredibly easy to glance over to your neighbor's paper, so remember to go with your FRIENDS!!!
I strongly urge the cru to sign up. I am quite sure ya buzzards can all make it.
It will be very interesting to see what Amy has to say. I hope she is recovering nicely from her broken femur.
Popeye
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Here is another NYT CW Forum post:
homeric - 11:48 PM ET October 13, 2007 (#51297 of 51298)
More on Chicago CROSSWORDS tryout
First and foremost: pleasure to meet you, Popeye! :-)
Pretty much as Popeye said: some nice, easy ones to start the ball rolling, slightly more specialized ones to the middle, and some humdingers at the end. Inexperienced crossworders looking to get onto a game show were sorely disappointed. (The poor lass next to me was clueless as to what name was missing from the list of Michael, Tito, Marlon, Jackie....eight letters, spelling counts.)
As to the interviews: the people that did well on the written test now have their images taken back to L.A. to be vetted by the producers as to who will be engaging and photogenic. Not everyone will survive that cut.
Sorry I couldn't meet more folk. It was great fun!
-- Mike
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Was there any talk about the game and the ratings thus far? Any show 'tweaking' that you might have heard? It's nice to hear that there are still tryouts going on, but is it too little, too late?
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Someone on my site who went to the Chicago auditions talked about 3 gameplay changes.
1- The Getaways are gone.
2- Five Extras are in the show
3- The bonus prize is for $5,000 + a trip
Are these right, to those that went? My source is really consistent.
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[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' post=\'166699\' date=\'Oct 14 2007, 09:50 AM\']
Someone on my site who went to the Chicago auditions talked about 3 gameplay changes.
1- The Getaways are gone.
2- Five Extras are in the show
3- The bonus prize is for $5,000 + a trip
Are these right, to those that went? My source is really consistent.
[/quote]
I was at the Noon audition, and they spoke of these changes. I did not pass the test, but it was weird how there were so many "bunches" of people passing the test. My guess is there was a lot of cheating going on.
I think they took about 30 people from our group.
My friend went to the 2PM, and he said they only passed people.
Also, the Noon group was gyped out of an appearance from Ty.
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[quote name=\'bellbm\' post=\'166712\' date=\'Oct 14 2007, 01:19 PM\']
Also, the Noon group was gyped out of an appearance from Ty.
[/quote]
Geez, does that suck.
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Where was this advertised? If I had known about it, I would have tried out !!!
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Any chance of a NY tryout anytime soon?
Chuck Donegan (The Curious "Chuckie Baby")
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You can go to their website LINK (http://\"http://www.crosswords.tv/\") and check, or sign up for their e-mail mailing list.
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There were also newspaper ads, including, interestingly enough, the RedEye, the Chicago Tribune's young demo tabloid, which does have a crossword puzzle next to the more heavily-promoted Sudoku puzzle (which, in a Tribune Co. synergy play, lists the solve time of the afternoon drive talk host at WGN Radio--as if the RedEye's target audience would be caught dead listening to an AM radio talk show host).
I web formed in to try out (primarily because they are flying the people from Chicago--I would not go out myself for only a guaranteed Croton watch). They got back to my by phone with nothing more but to call them long-distance in LA--I had stuff to do Saturday and decided that it would be fun, but not worth giving up several hours of time on Saturday to do. Ah, being an adult. :)