Brooke Sperbeck
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What are the odds that three women from the same family win a game show on three separate occasions?
Apparently pretty high.
After watching her mother and sister win a $1,000 Macy’s gift card and a car, respectively, on CBS’s “Let’s Make A Deal,” biological sciences freshman Allison Tuso knew she wanted to follow in their footsteps.
“I was like, ‘Okay, when I turn 18, I definitely want to go on the show,’” Tuso said. “So that was like my whole goal.”
In late July of this year, a month after her 18th birthday, Tuso, her mother and a few friends drove to the Hollywood studio to try to get on the show, Tuso said. After waiting in line with what she estimated to be 200 people, Tuso went through the interview process with producers.
“At the beginning they interview every single person, and you dress up in a costume,” Tuso said. “I was a ’50s girl.”
During the interview, Tuso was asked her name, age, where she was from and to say a little bit about herself, she said. Because her sister warned her to “go crazy,” she made sure to have plenty of energy.
“You just start rambling on, and they don’t want to see someone that’s shy,” Tuso said. “They want to see someone that’s super loud, all energetic and moving their arms around and jumping and all that.”
After trying to be as spirited and outgoing as possible in the interview, Tuso waited in the studio with all of the other contestants, she said.
“You go into the seating room and then you sit down and wait. Then it starts filming right then and there,” Tuso said. “So you don’t know until he (host Wayne Brady) basically puts you on the spot and says, ‘The ’50s girl come on down!’”
A representative for the show said one in 14 people have a chance of getting picked to be on the show, and students are very common contestants. Nevertheless, Tuso was shocked when host Brady picked her out of the audience.
“I had no clue if I was going to get picked because there were so many people, and they had so much energy, so I didn’t think that they would even pick me,” Tuso said.
Tuso went down to the stage and proceeded to make a deal with Brady, but she can’t reveal specifics before the show airs. Though she can’t say what she won yet, Tuso was “definitely happy” with the outcome. Prizes can range from something as small as a speaker or $50 cash, to as big as a car or vacation, the representative explained.
“I think it was definitely a good experience; I would definitely recommend people going,” Tuso said. “Everyone has a chance of winning.”
Tune in to watch Tuso make her deal Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. on KCOY Channel 12.