So You Want To Be A 'Price Is Right' Contestant'?

The Secret Dos, Don'ts And Really Don'ts Of Getting On America's No. 1 Game Show

LOS ANGELES -- When announcer Rod Roddy utters that famous line "Come on down, you're the next contestant on 'The Price Is Right,'" he's really completing the last step in a complex scientific process of selecting just the right people to fill "contestants' row" and your television screen at home.

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OK, it's not scientific, but it is a screening process that has been honed and kept secret for nearly 30 years.

I sat down with Rodger Dobkowitz, who has worked on "The Price is Right" since its premiere 28 years ago. It was his first job out of college, and he's been here ever since. Dobkowitz now shares the producer credit with Phillip Wayne Rossi, who has been on the show for 23 years after leaving "Beat the Clock" in Canada.

"CBS has to handle 320 people for each show. They come from all over, all walks of life, all ages, over 18 and older," Rossi says. "Some of them come out the day before and camp out in the parking lot across the way. They get into the CBS lot at about 6:30 a.m. and are let in on a first-come, first-served basis. Quite often they have to turn some people away."

Rossi tells me that when the line is formed, that's when his work begins. He heads toward the audience members with his assistant Sharon for that all-important contestant selection process.

"Sharon makes notes as we cue her. We use a secret word, or phrase, or handshake, or physical gesture," he says.

Rossi laughs and says that he can't say what those secret gestures are. But he and his assistant are looking for certain traits in people.

"We look for folks who are really ready to party with us," Rossi says. "We consider ourselves an adventure, a fun thing to do. If you are in a good mood, feeling good about yourself, feeling comfortable in a unique circumstance, outside the studio with all these other strangers ... If you are able to hold up under this kind of pressure, you might hold up kind of well under camera, then we have to pick the nine most involved party folks, a cross-section of our audience."

Rossi admits that "some days better than others" when it comes to picking contestants.

Dobkowitz does not select as often, as he is charged with making sure the games run smoothly, but he certainly knows what he's looking for.

"We can catch those fakers out there," Dobkowitz says. "They think they have to be over-exuberant to be on the show. We can tell those fakers."

The producers want to make sure that a contestant's enthusiasm is genuine.

Dobkowitz says America loves the show because they know that "these are just people being themselves, having a good time."

What about the groups of contestants who wear T-shirts with crazy sayings on them?

The truth is, what you wear is not going to get you to "come on down."

"We do not pick people because of T-shirts. (It's) absolutely unnecessary to wear anything special," Dobkowitz assures me.

The bottom line: Be yourself, and you could be "the next contestant on 'The Price Is Right!'"

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