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
