[gingita]

So I was wandering around MGM yesterday when I noticed signs about Who Wants to be a Millionaire tapings going on. I remember I had posted a thread here about that, but then forgot it was happening this weekend. So I went to the studio and asked about tickets. They were all gone, but I was told to come back at 6pm for the standby line. I was warned that during the taping I couldn't leave my seat at all and tapings can last a long time. Well I didn't have anything better to do, so I decided to go for it.

I came back at about 5:40 and got in line with about 6 people ahead of me. There were some people with extra tickets giving them away to standby-ers like me, so I easily got in. We were supposed to be let in at 6, but they were running about 30 minutes behind, so we got into the seating area at about 6:30.

They were taping for College Week, so once everyone was seated, they had to start rearranging people and moving the younger crowd to the lower seats and the not-so-young folks higher up. They had been pulling college students from the waiting line to seat them first, so not too many changes had to be made, but it still took a lot of time.

I had an excellent seat, so it was really exciting. There was a comedian guy named Paul who was in charge of getting the crowd warmed up and get everyone loose. He was really funny and had us all laughing insanely in no time. I noticed there weren't too many children in the audience, mainly due to the you-cannot-move-at-all rule.

So before they brought out Meredith Viera, we watched a highlight reel of previous contestants so we could practice our clapping and laughing. Yes, we actually had to practice laughing. Paul told us that no matter how stupid the contestants jokes sound, we still need to laugh like it's the funniest thing in the world. And yes, there were a lot of forced laughs during the tapings.

Before I move on with the rest, here are a few pictures.

[gingita]

The studio prior to the beginning of the taping.

[gingita]

Patiently waiting in my seat while everyone is coming in. It was a lot of waiting throughout the course of the evening.

[mrspooky]

Fabulous! How cool for you to be able to do that!!!
And what great pics!

[gingita]

I really had no idea how long I would be there since I just got in line without finding out too many details. I found out they would be taping for 3 shows, but you could leave between breaks.

So they finally brought out Meredith and the first contestant at about 7pm. The girl was still in the hot seat from an earlier taping that day. They never did the fastest finger questions (do they still do that?). They just kept bringing out new contestants.

Well I won't tell you how everybody did, but wow, is it ever suspenseful sitting in the audience while they are thinking through a question. You so want to yell out the answer like you do when you are watching it on TV. It was hard to hold it in. And we definitely had our share of forced laughs, especially on this one guy who was up there because he just loved to ramble and waste time it seemed like.

During the breaks when Meredith would head for a wardrobe and hair style change for the "next day" the contestant still in the hotseat would shoot a promo commercial encouraging people to watch them play for a million dollars blah blah blah. During this time, the crew would also rearrange the audience, mainly those sitting in the front few rows.

When the 3rd show taping ended, I couldn't believe it was 10pm! It all moved very quickly and it didn't seem like I had been there that long. MGM had closed at 7pm, but they still had buses running for us to get home. They also gave everyone a free ticket to Pleasure Island for staying so long.

It was so much fun and I am glad I did it. The shows will be airing May 3, 4, and 5, so be sure to watch them. I am assuming the first two shows filmed previously in the day will be on May 1 and 2. Everytime they came back from a commercial, they would show video clips of Disney World and talk about it. It was really cool!

And now for some more pictures!

[gingita]

In between acts (there were a total of 4 acts for each show). Meredith was really nice and would always talk to the contestant and get them relaxed between acts. She would also talk to the audience and encourage us as well. I have some respect for her now...even though I still strongly hate The View.

[gingita]

And another picture right before shooting resumed.

[gingita]

The big screen

[gingita]

Funny Story Time (because there is always one of those )

After the contestant has answered a question, all of a sudden, the stage director yells cut. Nobody including Meredith had any idea what was going on. The director runs across the stage to the other side and then comes back laughing and whispers something to Meredith. She then bursts out laughing and asks if she can tell the audience. Since she has a microphone attached and we all heard that, we start chanting yes. So she proceeds to tell us why we are stopped.

Apparently as one of the camera men was running up the stairs, he split his pants and his pants fell off! So they were looking for a replacement pair of pants! The comedian Paul comes out and tells the audience to be on the lookout for someone without pants...and of course I thought of a certain DC member at this point...just teasing you Wish.

Finally they found him some and he walked out and showed off his split pants. OMG they were split pretty bad!

I took a picture, but it didn't turn out very good, but here it is anyways.

[gingita]

And one more cool thing...

They were throwing shirts into the audience between acts and I caught one! I was so excited--free souvenir!

So that concludes my Millionaire taping experience. If you would like to have the same experiences (or very similar), they will be taping all weekend. Go even if you don't have tickets because your chances of getting in through the standby line are very good. And you won't have to be there as long as I was. I chose to stay all night, but you can leave during any break. It was worth the time and now I just may see myself on TV.

[lovemysons]

Gingita, that sounds pretty cool! I love having our own "insider" posting daily! You are such a cutey pie!

[queensmama]

Ughhh, that sounds like so much fun.
Ahhhh to live at WDW!

[DisneyHog6]

Hey Ging...that was AWESOME!!!! Thank you for giving us your super-duper CM adventure reports. It's so cool having you there and telling us all about it.

What was on the free souviner t-shirt? I'm assuming it was a "Millionare" shirt, but I still wanna know... Maybe you could post a picture of it...

Thanks again. Keep your CM advenure tales coming. We LOVE them...

[Ready2Go]

How fun ...my 7yo always wants to go see it.

[Boss Mouse]

Hey, did I tell you guys I made the top 10 list when DW and I went in March?
If you were anywhere near me the rest of the day, I did.