Lauren RabainoCal Poly business junior Nikole Mackenzie’s studying paid off this summer, not by gaining a degree, but by becoming the winner of an award showcase on “The Price is Right”.
Mackenzie organized a trip with 20 friends to CBS Television City in Los Angeles with the intent of making it onto the program.
After passing the preliminary interviews where the studio screens potential contestants for expressiveness and enthusiasm, Mackenzie found herself on stage, wearing a green Cal Poly T-shirt and being cheered on by her entourage.
“I’ve been watching ‘The Price is Right’ since I can remember. It’s always been a dream to be on it,” she said. “I wanted all my friends to be there. Usually I’m not much of an extrovert, but in this situation I made myself because I really wanted to be on.”
Mackenzie had an opportunity to win $10,000 early in the program but lost out. However, she went on to win a spot in the showcase round, where she guessed closer to the correct price for the items than her opponent, who she speculated was unfamiliar with the format.
“The other girl said $75,000 and she knew she’d made a mistake. I didn’t want to overbid, I went with $21,000. That’s around what the prizes in the showcase are usually worth,” Mackenzie said.
“Nikole really studied for this thing. Her boyfriend made a bound book of cards for her with pictures and prices of all the cleaning products and stuff,” said Matt Pergram, a fellow business junior and friend who took part in the trip.
“When you’ve got a group that size they always have one member on the show,” he added. “It was kind of like a late birthday present for her. When they asked at the entrance where she was from she told them, ‘Cal Poly’ and when they asked her major (her boyfriend) said, ‘The Price is Right’.”
Both agreed the experience was different than the television portrayal. During the showcase Mackenzie was out of her friend’s line-of-sight and was unable to hear them.
“Once I got up on stage, for the rest of the show I couldn’t hear a word that (host Drew Carey) said. The noise from the audience was just too intense,” She said.
“The audience is really a lot smaller than it looks, the announcer was all miked-up but we couldn’t hear anything. They just used flash cards and kept telling us to applause,” Pergram said.
Some of the funnier moments made it onto the small screen including and confused exchange between Carey and a nervous Mackenzie.
After winning the showcase, which included an Electra Craft party boat, living room furniture, and a set of ice coolers, Mackenzie said that her Cal Poly business training kicked in.
“My first thought was to sell it. I couldn’t pull that with my vehicle so I couldn’t really use it anyway,” she said. “I had just taken a class on taxes and I was really worried about how I was going to pay on the value of this income,” she said of the boat.
Fortunately, the studio offered her a cash prize instead, which she said would partly go to pay off student loans. Mackenzie kept the other prizes.
“Nikole always has a smile on her face and just a great personality to be around. It was just a really cool experience for all of us,” Pergram said.