Friday, May 18, 2007

Did Being a Red Sox Fan Keep Me Off "Millionaire"?

Today began with the lousy news that it was raining very hard in Boston, and it looked like the Red Sox-Braves game would be postponed, and that was the game I had tickets to. And as it turned out, that is exactly what happened. (It was called a short time ago, so it saved me a trip up there in the rain.)

But the news got worse this afternoon when I received a card from the producers of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" that I was NOT selected to be in the contestant pool for this upcoming season's shows.

That I was disappointed not to be selected is an understatement.

As many of you know, I took the exam here in NYC on May 1 and was one of the applicants who was told that he passed, and then I had a five-minute interview with one of the show's people. It was cordial enough, and I walked out of the ABC studios that day thinking I had aced it, and the next step was a cinch, being put into the contestant pool. Then from there the show's sponsors pick the actual people who will go on the show.

I didn't even make it to the contestant pool. The card I got from them in the mail today simply said,"thank you for your interest in being a contestant" and "you have not been selected to be a potential contestant."

I really thought I did well in the interview. On my application I talked about my job as Trivia Maven at Professor Thom's, about being a big Red Sox fan (as I knew that host Meredith Vieira is also one), my love of history and writing, and talked about the web sites I write for.

I don't want to come off sounding big-headed or anything, but I really wonder about something. Was I too good of a contestant for this show? Were they afraid that I might be the type of contestant who could possibly run the table and win the $1,000,000 prize? I walked into the interview trying to be the best I could possibly be. I am not an Ivy Leaguer or Rhodes Scholar or anything like that, but I really pulled out all the stops and tried my best.

I have noticed that the quality of contestants in the daytime version of Millionaire seems to be a bit inferior to the nighttime version that Regis Philbin hosted. I don't watch the daytime version of the show every day, but I rarely see any of the contestants come close to winning the big prize. The questions seem to be to be about the same degree of difficulty as the old show. But I have seen contestants during the day who really didn't seem to have any business being on that show.

I certainly don't regret anything I did in my exam or interview that may have kept me from being being a contestant. I'm proud of who I am, being a Red Sox fan, and running PT's Trivia Night. I tried to be as personable as I could be, and I talked about as many of interests as I could. If I were taking the exam again, I would do it exactly the same way.

I don't plan on taking the exam again. Why bother, as I don't seem to be the kind of contestant they are looking for.

And one last thing. The woman who interviewed me voluntarily told me that she was actually a Yankee fan. I told her about being in the 2004 World Series video and the great community of Red Sox fans at PT's and in NYC. We actually had a bit of a laugh about being on different sides of that baseball fence. But now that I think about it...

I guess I'll never know for sure why I wasn't picked to go on that show. They are very tight-lipped about things like that, and of course, I have no intention of contacting them about why I wasn't picked. But I have no plans of ever trying to go on that show again.

They had their chance to have The Omnipotent Q grace their program, and they blew it.

9 comments:

The Angry Tech said...

Aww.. Sorry, Q!

For what it's worth, the 5-minute "interview" is a basic pass/fail to weed out people who are obviously crazy/hostile/demonstrably weird/speech-impeded. Those folks are junior AP's who just determine that you're TV-acceptable.

The producers who choose the contestants are different all the time, so re-applying, even without changing anything about your audition, could absolutely net a different result. I say do it again. What have you got to lose, after all?

I took my test on Tuesday -- I guess I'll find out in a few weeks that I'm also not acceptable. :-)

BklynSoxFan said...

Glad to hear that you passed the test, Rob. I wish you all the best and hope you have better luck than I did. I could change my mind but at this point I sincerely doubt it.

Michael Leggett said...

I think that they want Current Yankee Fan Caliber, there:

Dumb, if you ask me!

Ken K. said...

Q, I think maybe your point about being "too good" a contestant may be what happened---someone who hosts a trivia quiz would be exposed to a LOT of trivia, and a LOT of answers. I know if I ever go, I'll leave that part of my life off the biography. Sorry though, I was looking forward to seeing you do well.

BklynSoxFan said...

Thanks for the responses, guys. You maybe right about that, Ken. I thought that maybe they'd look upon having a "Trivia Maven" on as a challenge...

BklynSoxFan said...

So I guess what you are saying Ken is that they were afraid of me!!

MattySox said...

From what I understand, we should all be afraid of you! Just kidding. Still pissed we didnt' meet in Philly...

BklynSoxFan said...

As well you should be afraid, Matty....Be very afraid!!!

I'm still sorry we didn't get a chance to hook up, but one of these days...

Suldog said...

Q:

Just got around to reading this entry, long after the fact. I'd decided the same course of action as you - give it my best shot and if they don't like me personally, oh well.

I still haven't heard their decision on me yet. When I do hear, I'll write about it, of course.