The Price is Right is the only game show where you don't have to run a gauntlet of difficult tests, practice sessions and interviews to become a contestant.  You just get a free ticket, show up at the studio and take your chances! And you can win a lot on this show - one woman won two cars worth over $88,000 back in 1992.

"The Price Is Right" contestants are recruited right from the studio audience ("Come on down!"), and asked to play one of several pricing games in which they attempt to correctly guess the retail price of one or more products.

To have a chance of being called up onto "Play The Price Is Right" stage as a contestant, all you have to do to is to sit in the studio audience and wait for them to call out your name. Or so it would seem...

Actually, there's a little more to it than that. The contestants are not selected from the audience at random, as it might appear.

Would-be contestants have to show up at the studio hours before taping time, and are given large "price tags" to wear, which feature an identification number. You write your name and address on one half of this ticket, and a page takes that half, so that later they can match your name to your number.

While you wait in line in front of CBS Television City (next to Farmers Market), a studio page will select people in groups of ten to meet with the show's producer, who decides which individuals are chosen (in advance) to later be called up on stage as contestants.

The show's producers are looking for a particular type of person for "The Price Is Right," and if you're not it, they'll pass you by.

Mainly, they're looking for enthusiasm. They want jolly, emotionally expressive contestants who will get genuinely excited when they win (or lose). As a result, they tend to prefer female contestants over men (who often pretend to act excited while being interviewed, but who later sober up when they realize that their boss may be watching them on TV). If you watch the show, you may notice that they also seem to favor pretty young girls, interesting looking and dressed individuals, college students and men in uniform.

When the producer thinks he has spotted a good contestant, his or her name will be noted (via the "price tag" they are wearing) and then during the taping of the show, their names will be announced, and they will be told to "Come on down!."

So by the time the audience takes it seats in "The Bob Barker Studio," the show's producers have already decided who is going to be called up, and who is not.

But despite the screening process, "The Price Is Right" is still probably your best hope of getting on network TV in a hurry. Even if you aren't selected as a contestant, chances are good that the TV camera will catch you, as it pans through the audience before announcing each contestant's name. So program your VCR to record the show before you leave for the studio! (And by the way, if you're not supposed to be here or are with someone you shouldn't be... maybe pick another show to attend.)