My husband and I each applied for
Survivor more than ten years ago. That meant sending in a three-minute videotape of oneself. He got a first callback and had to be interviewed in the CBS station in Pittsburgh. There were other folks there in the waiting room for their interviews and they were told NOT to talk to one another. To maintain the image he'd portrayed in his (very funny) video, he brought along a six-pack of beer and sat there, with his aviator sunglasses on, cracking open and drinking a coupla beers while he waited.
He didn't get any further, though.
I sent in a video and heard nothing. Then, about two weeks before filming for that particuliar season was to start, I got a phone call from the casting director, Lynn Spillman. Turns out one of the middle-aged women had to bow out and they were scrambling to replace her, so I got a 20-minute phone interview. Lynn said they kept watching my video over and over because they thought it was hilarious (umm, thank you?) and that, if I were chosen, I'd hear from them within 24 hours. Once I got off the phone, I was thrilled, stunned, and then panic-stricken because I realized I really did NOT want to go on
Survivor. The fun part was making the videos.
Every time the phone rang in the next 24 hours, I jumped outta my skin. But I lucked out and they did NOT call. Whew.
We also made videos to get on
The Amazing Race (but never heard back), and we drove into town to audition for
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? under bright, hot lights, where we had to play a short version of the game. We both felt like deer in the headlights (almost literally with those stage lights) and did really poorly.
Many failed attempts to get on game shows and reality shows, but it was probably better that we never got any further.