Personality vs. smarts-what do APs look for?

[Kazoo65]

They are having an interesting debate on the J! bored about whether the contestant coordinators prefer people who are really smart and have zero personality or people who have personality but maybe are of average intelligence (and scored between 35-42 on the in-person test).

I know what I'd rather watch. I like to see someone who's got the smarts and has an engaging personality to match. KJ is a good example of that.

On BAM, you can pretty much figure out what the APs look for by reading the transcripts. I read today's and I saw that the carryover contestant was not aware that

Spoiler

a President could later become a Supreme Court justice-it was William Howard Taft.

I would have had no problem with that question.

Since J! has a mock game portion of their audition process, the contestant coordinators can actually see who will be more likely to "freeze" under the pressure of TV lights and a live audience and who won't. Does BAM have such a thing? Judging from what I've seen on the show over the years, I doubt it.

[MarleysGh0st]

Since J! has a mock game portion of their audition process, the contestant coordinators can actually see who will be more likely to "freeze" under the pressure of TV lights and a live audience and who won't. Does BAM have such a thing? Judging from what I've seen on the show over the years, I doubt it.

For those auditioners who are selected to move on to the video interview, an AP will read a few questions to you, so you can demonstrate how you'd talk out your questions. I'm sure I failed that portion of the video interview in 2012, when I answered the questions I knew far too quickly, without any of that "entertaining" verbalizations.

And it's worth noting that the set-up is inherently more awkward than on the real show, since you can't see the questions being read to you by the AP.

[Jeemie]

In the early days of auditions, BAM had a mock game, but woe was you if you took it seriously.

They didn't care if you played and won most of the rounds- it wasn't a test of your game play- it was another personality test.

[jaybee]

#1. Demographics
#2. Personality
#3. Something unusual / interesting
#27. Trivia smarts.

[TheConfessor]

#1. Demographics
#2. Personality
#3. Something unusual / interesting
#27. Trivia smarts.

Rec!

[rayxtwo]

I don't know. All I know is they told me that if they ever put the show on the radio, I'd be the first person they called.

Ray