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By Sarah Brown – Managing Editor

A local Wilcox County Native, Jessica Tripp now living in Atlanta where she is employed at RangeWater Real Estate as the Director of Risk Management had a trip of a lifetime to Los Angeles, California. She and her boyfriend Peter had signed up for tickets online because they knew they would be in LA on vacation. Jessica said that, “Our travels to LA were so interesting. Our flight landed right after Hurricane Hillary on the west coast where the storm made landfall and quickly turned into a tropical storm causing mudslides and heavy rain.” They also experienced a 5.1 earthquake on the way to their hotel, besides that their trip still went mostly as planned including them being able to attend America’s favorite game show, The Price is Right on the morning of August 21^st. It is not as easy as you make think it to get onto a game show; there is a whole application and interview process before hand. Jessica and Peter arrived at the studio in Glendale, CA and filled out an application that consisted of basic personal information as well as an Non- Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that would ensure that they do not speak of the taping of the show and if they were to win they could not speak of the outcome until the episode had aired on CBS October 11^th. The interview process had consisted of 150 people broken down into smaller groups of 8-10 where they would ask them their names; occupations, where they were from and what had brought them to California. Jessica said,” My boyfriend Peter, thinks my personality and beautiful smile were how I was selected at random to participate.”

Their experience was definitely one to remember, Jessica speaks on her experience saying, “I enjoyed our time with the audience prior to the show getting to know everyone. Meeting Drew Carey was awesome! He was so personable to everyone. I felt like he was my friend when we would speak with one another during the show taping.” Jessica was called down fourth right at the beginning of the show and went through five pricing games on Contestant Row. She did not get the winning bid until the 6^th bidding items where she bid $1,700 got an exercise bike and workout ab machine. She WON as the total retail price was $1,798, which meant she was the last contestant to go on stage for a pricing game. The pricing game she played was ½ Half Off where 16 boxes were on display for the chance of winning up to $10,000 cash. The object of the game was to look at two items and determine which one is half off to get boxes taken down from the 16 boxes on display. It was 16 boxes to eight boxes with one correct, eight boxes to four boxes with two correct and four boxes to two boxes with all three correct. If the contestant got all three right they would have a 50% chance of winning the $10,000 cash prize. During Jessica’s game she guessed the half price item incorrectly twice with the last items her only chance to win the cash. She mentioned that, “I even joked with Drew Carey on one of the items to say how the heck would the pitcher correct at $168, he commented that he would have not gotten that correct either.” Luckily Jessica was able to guess the final items correct, which was a Shark hair tool and Yeti lunch box. The hair tool was half price and the boxes got reduced from 16 to eight. At that point the object of the game was to guess that box with the $10,000 cash in it. She says, “I chose box #7, mu lucky and favorite number. This was a mathematician’s dream for a 1 out of 8 chances of winning.” When she opened the box, she could only see her boyfriends reaction in the audience and saw that he was in shock. She said, she then leaned over to see what was in the box and was stunned to see wadded up cash. Her and Drew threw the cash up in the air as they celebrated her win, “Making it rain.” Jessica said that, “This show and the joy I felt during this experience was a highlight of my life that I will never forget.” The game was not over yet for Jessica as she was now going to the wheel to get to the Showcase. She said that the wheel actually is pretty heavy but she was prepared and made sure to go up to pull the lever and then pull down. On the first spin she got $0.25 and on her second spin she got $0.65. The goal was to as close to or a $1.00 without going over and greater than the last contestant’s amount, which was $0.75. Jessica ended up with $0.90 to win the spin and go on to the Showcase showdown. There was a moment of confusion for Jessica as she mentions that when Drew had turned to her and told her “thank you for playing today”. She started to walk off the stage not realizing that she had won, Drew then told her to come back on stage, as she was the top winner. She actually ended up being the top winner of the day up to that point with the prizes she had won, which meant that as first place she would get the first chance at the Showcase. She made the decision to pass on the first Showcase item, which was an SUV and other prizes. On the second Showcase that consisted of two trips one to Orlando, one to Iceland and a home office she bid $29,350, which she over bid on and unfortunately did not win the Showcase.

Her favorite part of this whole experience was that it was a show she had watched as a child with her sister and grandmama Tripp. She says that, “My sister and I would watch the original host Bob Barker and the announcer Rod Roddy from a young age. To be able to attend the show was a bucket list item for me.” Her dream went above and beyond to not only be on the show but to be called as a contestant and WIN! It was beyond her wildest dreams with the only downfall being that she didn’t win the Showcase Showdown.

“This experience was something that I will never forget for the rest of my life.” – Jessica Tripp

To watch her episode click here Price is Right Episode October 11, 2023