I'm so excited!

[MarleysGh0st]

Also, does anyone know that in the ATA lifeline if all members of the audience must lock in or can they pass if they don't know - can you ask them not to vote if they are going to just take a guess?

You can ask - there have been other contestants who have done so IIRC, but whether they will accede to your request or punish you by deliberately voting for the wrong answer is anybody's guess.

Have you ever been to a taping of the show, frogman? I can tell you that there's a great impatience for the audience to get involved in the game and the only chance they have to do that is with the ATA. Therefore, there's a huge temptation to cast an ATA vote, even if it is a complete guess, and even if you're enough of a fanatic about the game to know that it's better for the contestant to abstain in that circumstances. (I've managed to abstain on a few ATA votes, but it's very, very hard!) Since most of the audience don't have that level of interest, you'd have a hard sell trying to convince them to follow your suggestion.

Personally, I think the warm-up comedian should make this suggestion a part of the standard audience briefing, but he's never concerned about that.

[earendel]

Also, does anyone know that in the ATA lifeline if all members of the audience must lock in or can they pass if they don't know - can you ask them not to vote if they are going to just take a guess?

You can ask - there have been other contestants who have done so IIRC, but whether they will accede to your request or punish you by deliberately voting for the wrong answer is anybody's guess.

Have you ever been to a taping of the show, frogman? I can tell you that there's a great impatience for the audience to get involved in the game and the only chance they have to do that is with the ATA. Therefore, there's a huge temptation to cast an ATA vote, even if it is a complete guess, and even if you're enough of a fanatic about the game to know that it's better for the contestant to abstain in that circumstances. (I've managed to abstain on a few ATA votes, but it's very, very hard!) Since most of the audience don't have that level of interest, you'd have a hard sell trying to convince them to follow your suggestion.

Personally, I think the warm-up comedian should make this suggestion a part of the standard audience briefing, but he's never concerned about that.

Do I remember correctly that someone on one of the Bored's previous incarnations suggested asking the audience members who didn't know the answer to vote for a specific answer, one that the contestant knew was wrong, with the hope that the resulting answer distribution would be more reliable?

To clarify - the contestant knows the answer isn't "D", so he asks everyone who doesn't know the answer to vote "D" so that the distribution among "A", "B", and "C" would be more likely to give the right answer.

[MarleysGh0st]

You can ask - there have been other contestants who have done so IIRC, but whether they will accede to your request or punish you by deliberately voting for the wrong answer is anybody's guess.

Have you ever been to a taping of the show, frogman? I can tell you that there's a great impatience for the audience to get involved in the game and the only chance they have to do that is with the ATA. Therefore, there's a huge temptation to cast an ATA vote, even if it is a complete guess, and even if you're enough of a fanatic about the game to know that it's better for the contestant to abstain in that circumstances. (I've managed to abstain on a few ATA votes, but it's very, very hard!) Since most of the audience don't have that level of interest, you'd have a hard sell trying to convince them to follow your suggestion.

Personally, I think the warm-up comedian should make this suggestion a part of the standard audience briefing, but he's never concerned about that.

Do I remember correctly that someone on one of the Bored's previous incarnations suggested asking the audience members who didn't know the answer to vote for a specific answer, one that the contestant knew was wrong, with the hope that the resulting answer distribution would be more reliable?

To clarify - the contestant knows the answer isn't "D", so he asks everyone who doesn't know the answer to vote "D" so that the distribution among "A", "B", and "C" would be more likely to give the right answer.

I remember something like that, too, but I can't cite a particular contestant. But it's still difficult making any requests like this to the audience without looking awkward. It seems like the only conversation that's expected before the ATA is the standard brown-nosing compliment about how brilliant the audience looks!

[earendel]

Have you ever been to a taping of the show, frogman? I can tell you that there's a great impatience for the audience to get involved in the game and the only chance they have to do that is with the ATA. Therefore, there's a huge temptation to cast an ATA vote, even if it is a complete guess, and even if you're enough of a fanatic about the game to know that it's better for the contestant to abstain in that circumstances. (I've managed to abstain on a few ATA votes, but it's very, very hard!) Since most of the audience don't have that level of interest, you'd have a hard sell trying to convince them to follow your suggestion.

Personally, I think the warm-up comedian should make this suggestion a part of the standard audience briefing, but he's never concerned about that.

Do I remember correctly that someone on one of the Bored's previous incarnations suggested asking the audience members who didn't know the answer to vote for a specific answer, one that the contestant knew was wrong, with the hope that the resulting answer distribution would be more reliable?

To clarify - the contestant knows the answer isn't "D", so he asks everyone who doesn't know the answer to vote "D" so that the distribution among "A", "B", and "C" would be more likely to give the right answer.

I remember something like that, too, but I can't cite a particular contestant. But it's still difficult making any requests like this to the audience without looking awkward. It seems like the only conversation that's expected before the ATA is the standard brown-nosing compliment about how brilliant the audience looks!

I'm not sure anyone ever really tried it - it was something that a poster suggested he (or she) might try if he/she ever got into the HS.

[ghostjmf]

I think it would be a better suggestion to ask/beg the audience not to let people near them throw them off their choice. What you don't want is cliques of people who for whatever reason (they think they're right; they are going for what they think is the wrong answer because they want the contestant to fail; whatever) sway their neighbors. If a bunch of people really *don't* know the answer, maybe that suggestion would make them refrain from guessing. I don't think "if you don't know the answer, please don't vote at all" would go over too well.

[Bob78164]

If it is of any use and a possible data point for anyone tracking this - I also tried out recently (a little more then a month ago) and I passed the test and got the 2nd interview with the video tape - I too felt a little uneasy during the taping (not only did I try to make a good impression I also was trying not to look to wierd or close/roll my eyes too much - a habit I have) so that makes the video harder IMHO.

The good news was I got the card to be in the pool (yea!) so now the wait is on...

Does anyone have any sense of the chances from this point on? How likely is it to be on the show if you are in the pool? Is there a large number of people who get in the pool but don't get called?

I tried out twice for Jeopardy! in the past and passed the test both times - I believe with J! everyone who passes is 'in the pool' but during the inteview/mock playing session I'm sure they triage everyone - but never inform you where you stand - just that you have to wait a year before you can try again.

I'm hoping that with WWTBAM that by being told the results of the post-testing phase (in the pool or not) that if you are in the pool that your chances of being called are much better - but I would like to know if there are a lot of folks who made it to the pool but never got to swim...

Good luck again and let us know in a couple of weeks if you get your card!

Congratulations, frogman. Could you let us know the date of your audition. I'd love to add you to the Audition List. Thanks. --Bob

[Bob78164]

You can ask - there have been other contestants who have done so IIRC, but whether they will accede to your request or punish you by deliberately voting for the wrong answer is anybody's guess.

Have you ever been to a taping of the show, frogman? I can tell you that there's a great impatience for the audience to get involved in the game and the only chance they have to do that is with the ATA. Therefore, there's a huge temptation to cast an ATA vote, even if it is a complete guess, and even if you're enough of a fanatic about the game to know that it's better for the contestant to abstain in that circumstances. (I've managed to abstain on a few ATA votes, but it's very, very hard!) Since most of the audience don't have that level of interest, you'd have a hard sell trying to convince them to follow your suggestion.

Personally, I think the warm-up comedian should make this suggestion a part of the standard audience briefing, but he's never concerned about that.

Do I remember correctly that someone on one of the Bored's previous incarnations suggested asking the audience members who didn't know the answer to vote for a specific answer, one that the contestant knew was wrong, with the hope that the resulting answer distribution would be more reliable?

To clarify - the contestant knows the answer isn't "D", so he asks everyone who doesn't know the answer to vote "D" so that the distribution among "A", "B", and "C" would be more likely to give the right answer.

I believe that was my suggestion. It works better, of course, if you also know (but don't disclose) that the answer isn't "B" so that you have at least some information regarding how many people aren't abiding by your request. --Bob

[sunflower]

I definitely would not ask people to not answer, that can truly backfire. I think a smart person who understands the game would do that anyway. When I went to a taping, I only answered when I knew I was right.

The only time I would say you could get away with that is if the question lends itself to it...a girl on my tape date got a question about a zodiac sign and it was actually cute because she said something like, "I'd like to ask the audience, if only the Gemini's will answer" and then she laughed and it was cute, but who knows which members of the audience answered and which did not. You only know %, not hard numbers.

As far as how to pick a PAF my best advice is to have a few people who can google quickly. You should also have some subject matter experts, in the case of a question that would not be able to be looked up quickly. But they know people use Google, they just ask you not to say "look it up on Google" when you're on camera. They also hate the fake pretending to know, we all know when people are googling...

Any other specific PAF questions?

[frogman042]

For those who asked, my Audition was Apr. 29th and I got my card 2 weeks and 3 days later.

I do have some (actually a bunch) PAF questions... here are my initial ones?

According to the Millionaire website - PAF's must use a land-line (no cell phones) - given that they tape 5 shows a day and I presume each show actually takes more then the 1/2 to actually tape (my guess is it may be closer to an hour - I have not had the honor of being at a taping) I would think that your PAF would need to stay by their phone from possibly 5 to 8 hours - that seems like a huge burden - or am I missing something.

I saw in another thread that a PAF gets a call when you actually make it to the HotSeat - is that true? If so, can you give them a cell number for the HS notification call? I would think they would call when you are out of the HS as well - so they are free to leave their land-line - is that also true?

How hard is it to get PAF to agree to be a PAF - especially if they have to spend 7 hours by the phone? Do you recommend promissing them a cut of the winnings in advance - to you reward them for just taking the time to be a PAF even if you end up not calling them?

Is there an actual rule disallowing the PAF to use a speaker phone - or is it just bad form? Are there rules that would prevent other people from picking up a 2nd or 3rd phone on the same line during the PAF - so more then 1 person can hear the PAF question?

That should be more then enough for now - thanks in advance.

[Bob78164]

For those who asked, my Audition was Apr. 29th and I got my card 2 weeks and 3 days later.

I do have some (actually a bunch) PAF questions... here are my initial ones?

According to the Millionaire website - PAF's must use a land-line (no cell phones) - given that they tape 5 shows a day and I presume each show actually takes more then the 1/2 to actually tape (my guess is it may be closer to an hour - I have not had the honor of being at a taping) I would think that your PAF would need to stay by their phone from possibly 5 to 8 hours - that seems like a huge burden - or am I missing something.

I saw in another thread that a PAF gets a call when you actually make it to the HotSeat - is that true? If so, can you give them a cell number for the HS notification call? I would think they would call when you are out of the HS as well - so they are free to leave their land-line - is that also true?

How hard is it to get PAF to agree to be a PAF - especially if they have to spend 7 hours by the phone? Do you recommend promissing them a cut of the winnings in advance - to you reward them for just taking the time to be a PAF even if you end up not calling them?

Is there an actual rule disallowing the PAF to use a speaker phone - or is it just bad form? Are there rules that would prevent other people from picking up a 2nd or 3rd phone on the same line during the PAF - so more then 1 person can hear the PAF question?

That should be more then enough for now - thanks in advance.

You have the logistics correct. There's an initial start-of-day set-up call, which can be made to a cell phone. They are serious about requiring a land line for the "In the Hot Seat" and PAF calls. I'm unaware of anyone who's attempted to use multiple people on the call. There's also a substantial possibility that, if you are called, you will not tape on your originally scheduled date, but will be carried over to the next taping day. They invariably overbook, so as not to run the risk of running out of contestants on a taping day.

You have found, right here, a fairly large group of people with substantial experience serving as PAFs. No one here has ever expected payment for serving (other than a thank you). Our conventional wisdom is that we would not wish to rely on someone who requires payment in order to serve -- we'd rather have friends who are willing to devote the necessary time out of the goodness of their hearts. --Bob

[ulysses5019]

For those who asked, my Audition was Apr. 29th and I got my card 2 weeks and 3 days later.

I do have some (actually a bunch) PAF questions... here are my initial ones?

According to the Millionaire website - PAF's must use a land-line (no cell phones) - given that they tape 5 shows a day and I presume each show actually takes more then the 1/2 to actually tape (my guess is it may be closer to an hour - I have not had the honor of being at a taping) I would think that your PAF would need to stay by their phone from possibly 5 to 8 hours - that seems like a huge burden - or am I missing something.

I saw in another thread that a PAF gets a call when you actually make it to the HotSeat - is that true? If so, can you give them a cell number for the HS notification call? I would think they would call when you are out of the HS as well - so they are free to leave their land-line - is that also true?

How hard is it to get PAF to agree to be a PAF - especially if they have to spend 7 hours by the phone? Do you recommend promissing them a cut of the winnings in advance - to you reward them for just taking the time to be a PAF even if you end up not calling them?

Is there an actual rule disallowing the PAF to use a speaker phone - or is it just bad form? Are there rules that would prevent other people from picking up a 2nd or 3rd phone on the same line during the PAF - so more then 1 person can hear the PAF question?

That should be more then enough for now - thanks in advance.

You have the logistics correct. There's an initial start-of-day set-up call, which can be made to a cell phone. They are serious about requiring a land line for the "In the Hot Seat" and PAF calls. I'm unaware of anyone who's attempted to use multiple people on the call. There's also a substantial possibility that, if you are called, you will not tape on your originally scheduled date, but will be carried over to the next taping day. They invariably overbook, so as not to run the risk of running out of contestants on a taping day.

You have found, right here, a fairly large group of people with substantial experience serving as PAFs. No one here has ever expected payment for serving (other than a thank you). Our conventional wisdom is that we would not wish to rely on someone who requires payment in order to serve -- we'd rather have friends who are willing to devote the necessary time out of the goodness of their hearts. --Bob

Just to add to bob's post......I sent all my PAF's a personalized gift. It is an imposition but I consider all of my PAFs to be friends. I had the advantage of actually meeting them all.

[MarleysGh0st]

Bob and Uly have answered most of your questions already (and Bob probably has been on the PAF list more often than anyone else in the country). I'll add a little to that.

I saw in another thread that a PAF gets a call when you actually make it to the HotSeat - is that true? If so, can you give them a cell number for the HS notification call? I would think they would call when you are out of the HS as well - so they are free to leave their land-line - is that also true?

The "In the Hot Seat" call has to go to the land-line, I think, although you can ask your producer about that. They will follow up with a "Stand Down" call after a contestant has finished. However, when a taping day ends, they do not extend the same courtesy to the PAFs standing by for the contestants who haven't had their turn yet, so be sure to get on your cell and call your PAFs as soon as you can, if you're one of those held over to the next show.

Is there an actual rule disallowing the PAF to use a speaker phone - or is it just bad form? Are there rules that would prevent other people from picking up a 2nd or 3rd phone on the same line during the PAF - so more then 1 person can hear the PAF question?

They strongly discourage the speaker phone, although I don't think they can forbid it. If the sound quality is bad, though, it'll be completely at your own risk. If you're going to have extra people in the same room as the PAF, having them listen in on extra phones is a good idea; we've seen too many examples of PAFs trying to repeat the Q&A to others in the room, usually running out of time before they can get an answer.

[starfish1113]

With regards to asking the audience to refrain if they don't know the answer, I definitely remember at least one person doing this who ended up getting results that had the four choices basically equally weighted. It seems like a good idea in theory but in practice it doesn't seem to work.

I'm wondering how well the following scenario would work:

You get a question in which you know the answer isn't "C" for a fact. So, before asking for ATA, you mislead the audience by saying that you are pretty sure that the right answer is "C" but that you'd like to ATA just to make sure. So, presumably, the clueless audience members will jump on the "C" bandwagon rather than equally distributing themselves among the wrong answer and there will be a definite spike for the right answer. I'd never use it in the hot seat myself, but I'd like to see somebody do it to see if it will work.

[frogman042]

Thanks so much for the great respones - It's good info to have that they don't curtesy call if you are held over to another taping day but that they will call at the start of the day to a cell phone.

I don't think I would use a PAF who insisted on being paid - I was just wondering if someone won really big if they ever do help compensate for their time? Also I think if a PAF helps advance you on a reallly big-money qeustion (e.g. >= 50K) then giving them a sorta of 'finders fee' is the proper thing to do. Lower amounts may earn a drink or dinner or something like that were you can have a nice evening together and relate the experience in person.

I do have a pretty big pool of family and friends to draw from, and some are pretty Google savay, but it is nice to know that people on this board (bored?) are willing to also act as a PAF for someone they don't really know - wow that's great. I may take up a volunteer just to have someone with experience on doing this - does that make sense?

In either case I do plan on doing some practice runs with my PAFs - have someone else call them, hand me the phone, start the 30 sec clock - etc. If I do use someone for the board - I would hope they would be willing to do this as well. I saw on the website the a person can only be a PAFer 2 x per year - does that mean appearing on someones list or actually used - if someone on the board has been a multiple PAFer but has appeared once on the show can they be a PAF? What happens if soimeone else uses that person prior to your appearance?

Another question on PAF - has it ever happened that a PAF doesn't answer or they get a busy signal? What happens in those cases - do you lose your PAF lifeline or do they let you try another PAF? Also what happens if a different person then your PAF answers - I assume that they just put the actual PAF on, but if that person happens to be unavailable can the other person act as a PAF? In other words is your PAF either only the phone number and anyone there can be the PAF, or is it both the number and the person's name and it must be the two combined - and if both don't work-out (for whatever reason) you have just burned that lifeline?

Thanks again!

[slam]

With regards to asking the audience to refrain if they don't know the answer, I definitely remember at least one person doing this who ended up getting results that had the four choices basically equally weighted. It seems like a good idea in theory but in practice it doesn't seem to work.

I'm wondering how well the following scenario would work:

You get a question in which you know the answer isn't "C" for a fact. So, before asking for ATA, you mislead the audience by saying that you are pretty sure that the right answer is "C" but that you'd like to ATA just to make sure. So, presumably, the clueless audience members will jump on the "C" bandwagon rather than equally distributing themselves among the wrong answer and there will be a definite spike for the right answer. I'd never use it in the hot seat myself, but I'd like to see somebody do it to see if it will work.

That sounds like a good idea but it might depend on how reasonable C sounds. If C is blatantly wrong, I'd guess that people wouldn't pick it anyway and you might get some undesirable behavior on the ATA. If C at least seems reasonable, then you might a greater percentage of the clueless audience members to go for it (which should make the right answer a bit easier to diagnose). This seems like a good strategy which I'd guess is unlikely to backfire on you. It might help and it shouldn't hurt.

[starfish1113]

I don't think I would use a PAF who insisted on being paid - I was just wondering if someone won really big if they ever do help compensate for their time? Also I think if a PAF helps advance you on a reallly big-money qeustion (e.g. >= 50K) then giving them a sorta of 'finders fee' is the proper thing to do. Lower amounts may earn a drink or dinner or something like that were you can have a nice evening together and relate the experience in person.

I have been an on-air PAF five times (answered correctly on four of them) and never asked for or expected any compensation. On some occasions I did receive a token of thanks and on other occasions I received nothing. I would think that there are a lot of variables for a hot seater (having never been in the hot seat myself - yet!) when determining if and what to give PAFers, such as amount won, personal financial status, and relationship with PAF.

[MarleysGh0st]

I saw on the website the a person can only be a PAFer 2 x per year - does that mean appearing on someones list or actually used - if someone on the board has been a multiple PAFer but has appeared once on the show can they be a PAF? What happens if soimeone else uses that person prior to your appearance?

That means actually getting the PAF call and "appearing" on air. Until that happens, you can appear on PAF lists as often as you want to. If one of your PAFs did reach that limit before your show taped, you'd have to select someone else. Hopefully, that doesn't happen on the same day that you're taping--even experienced PAFs aren't that busy!

Another question on PAF - has it ever happened that a PAF doesn't answer or they get a busy signal? What happens in those cases - do you lose your PAF lifeline or do they let you try another PAF?

I've been in the audience and seen contestants told that their PAF is unavailable, so they have to call a different one. Last season, I think it was, a woman was told that only one of her PAFs was available, so she had to call that one!

It's a good idea that the PAFs you choose are fully aware of this time commitment, so that they don't have to cancel out on you like that!

[slam]

I've been in the audience and seen contestants told that their PAF is unavailable, so they have to call a different one. Last season, I think it was, a woman was told that only one of her PAFs was available, so she had to call that one!

It's a good idea that the PAFs you choose are fully aware of this time commitment, so that they don't have to cancel out on you like that!

Another good reason for selecting PAFs from this Bored. They are prepared for all aspects of what's involved with being one.

[MarleysGh0st]

Oh, and there's no prohibition against using previous contestants as your PAF, as long as they haven't already been a PAF twice that season. We have some famous contesants among us here who have done so!

[frogman042]

Great info on the PAF - so they precheck the PAFs the day of the taping, if they can't reach them in the morning - then they are off the list? What happens if they reach them in the morning but fail to get through when you are in the hot-seat? Have you burned you PAF or can you use another one that they were able to reach as well?

Based on what I read, I think using 1 or 2 PAFs from this board makes sense - since I live close to 2 thousand miles from NYC I'm assuming that if I do get the call that it should be at least a week in advance of the taping so I have the chance to make travel arrangements (I'm gussing that those who live in the NYC area can and sometimes do get last minute calls to fill out the roster) - Would that be enough time for me to solicite a PAF on this board as well as work in a practice session or two?

Another question, I get the impression that the new season starts taping in the fall and that the earliest I would expect a possible call to be on the show is sometimie in Augest - so I shouldn't be paranoid about missing the call at least till then? Is that a reasonable assumption? Also, does anyone know when they typically finish taping for the year so if I don't get a call by then, I know that this season has passed me by?

Thanks.

[slam]

Taping is beginning this year on July 21st but then taking a hiatus while Meredith goes to Beijing for Olympic coverage. Taping will end before Thanksgiving.

[frogman042]

Oh, and there's no prohibition against using previous contestants as your PAF, as long as they haven't already been a PAF twice that season. We have some famous contesants among us here who have done so!

MarleysGh0st - it sounds like you've been in the Hot Seat - if so I would love to read the transcript - also is there an easy way to find the transcripts of those who are active on this board? It would be fun to be able get a sense of how their games went.

[MarleysGh0st]

MarleysGh0st - it sounds like you've been in the Hot Seat

Ummmm, no.

[frogman042]

Taping is beginning this year on July 21st but then taking a hiatus while Meredith goes to Beijing for Olympic coverage. Taping will end before Thanksgiving.

Thanks! Sooner then I thought. Does anyone also know if the TPTB monitor and/or post to this board - do they care if waders (those of use in the pool but have not yet gotten the call) are actively trying to get information - is that a plus or a minus as far as getting the call - or does that not have any known effect?

Parinoid in Peroria (OK so know you know I'm not in Peoria... or do you???)

[nitrah55]

About the "don't answer unless you're sure" request:

This is a New York City audience. I'm from New York.

There are people who, upon hearing that request, would deliberately pick a wrong answer.

I'm just sayin'.