The 2012 online test for adults

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Picked Off
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by Picked Off »

Good luck to everyone. I'm not sure if everyone would agree with me, but I think the online test is the most difficult part of the entire pre-taping experience.
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legendneverdies
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by legendneverdies »

dhkendall wrote: From what I hear, in the first dozen or so seasons (I don't know the exact number, those of you who do (you know who you are!) substitute the correct number) they reimbursed travel expenses to Culver City (but never to the audition, as such a small number of auditioners get The Call anyways) and in return second and third place got "fabulous prizes" (like toaster ovens, trips, exercise machines, etc). When prizes were replaced with cash ($2000 and $1000), travel reimbursements (for everyone) were cut as well, the money being meant to be your travel reimbursement (which is, I suppose, sufficient for most contestants who live in most of the lower 48).
The prizes were replaced with cash in May 2002, right after the Million Dollar Masters aired. I never heard of them paying travel expenses. Wheel never paid travel expenses either, and they didn't start giving away cash(to those who won nothing during the maingame) as parting gifts until around the same time J! did(and WHeel didn't offer trips and appliances as parting gifts like J! did, it was the usual end-of-show fee plugs of the 70s-90s). Not sure if Family Feud gives anything to losing families these days(of course two time winning families who never win Fast Money go home with less, before you even divide the winnings by five, than a second place finisher on J!)
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by debramc »

lisa0012 wrote:
debramc wrote:Aaargh! They're coming to Dallas this year! And I'm still in the pool... I'm sure next time the nearest one will be KC or some such distant place again...
They are coming to Dallas the year I finally live here! And I've been out of the pool for over a year. Think it's time for another go at it! :D
Definitely go for it, they aren't likely to audition here again for a few years. The only time I actually auditioned here was in 2001, in the pre-online days, and I was living in Austin at the time. Even that was a much shorter trip than Dallas to KC, which I've done twice.
And good luck!!
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lisa0012
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by lisa0012 »

debramc wrote:
lisa0012 wrote:
debramc wrote:Aaargh! They're coming to Dallas this year! And I'm still in the pool... I'm sure next time the nearest one will be KC or some such distant place again...
They are coming to Dallas the year I finally live here! And I've been out of the pool for over a year. Think it's time for another go at it! :D
Definitely go for it, they aren't likely to audition here again for a few years. The only time I actually auditioned here was in 2001, in the pre-online days, and I was living in Austin at the time. Even that was a much shorter trip than Dallas to KC, which I've done twice.
And good luck!!
I auditioned here the last time they came, in 2008 (I was living in College Station). So maybe second time's the charm! Good luck to you too!
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mam418
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by mam418 »

trainman wrote:
alamble wrote:They already have a deal in place with I think the Hilton in Culver City, which offers discount rates to contestants.
"DoubleTree by Hilton," specifically -- I hope the contestant rate is eligible for HHonors points!

(Couldn't take the 2011 test since I'd had an in-person audition at that very hotel during 2010. So I'm looking forward to this 2012 test -- yet another shot at it.)
Huh. Back in February, when I taped, the deal was at the Culver City Radisson (not the Hilton). Nice hotel. And the waffles are very good. :D
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by oddsox »

mam418 wrote:
trainman wrote:
alamble wrote:They already have a deal in place with I think the Hilton in Culver City, which offers discount rates to contestants.
"DoubleTree by Hilton," specifically -- I hope the contestant rate is eligible for HHonors points!

(Couldn't take the 2011 test since I'd had an in-person audition at that very hotel during 2010. So I'm looking forward to this 2012 test -- yet another shot at it.)
Huh. Back in February, when I taped, the deal was at the Culver City Radisson (not the Hilton). Nice hotel. And the waffles are very good. :D
I believe that's the same hotel, recently re-named.
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by Suze »

Yeah it's the same hotel, new name. You can use Hilton points to pay for the room, but I think you won't get the Jeopardy rate, and you don't get the free breakfast tickets. A couple people from my taping group used points.
Good luck to everyone who takes the test. :)
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by Turd Ferguson »

Suze wrote:Yeah it's the same hotel, new name. You can use Hilton points to pay for the room, but I think you won't get the Jeopardy rate, and you don't get the free breakfast tickets. A couple people from my taping group used points.
Good luck to everyone who takes the test. :)
Interesting... I wonder if it's off Priceline now. (I "accidentally" got the Radisson on Priceline at a really low rate when I thought I was going to be in the audience, so when I needed to make a reservation for taping, I went the Priceline route again and got a rate significantly lower than the J! rate. I didn't know the J! rate included breakfast tickets, though that might explain why I felt like I was the only one eating in the Green Room that morning).
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trainman
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by trainman »

Suze wrote:You can use Hilton points to pay for the room, but I think you won't get the Jeopardy rate, and you don't get the free breakfast tickets.
Oh, I wouldn't want to pay for the room with points -- I'd want make sure I earn points so I can get a free stay at a nicer Hilton somewhere else later. :D

(Of course, since I'm in the area, I wouldn't really have to stay there...but I'm not sure I'd want to deal with the stress of driving down the 405 during the morning rush hour right before a taping.)
slam
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by slam »

And I've signed up for yet another online test. I'm now breaking my every other year pattern since I didn't get an invite to a live audition for the first time (yes, I'm sure I passed the test). Hopefully I'll fare better this year. For the record, I hope to be auditioning in NYC, within walking distance of both my apartment and office.
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by boson »

slam wrote:And I've signed up for yet another online test. I'm now breaking my every other year pattern since I didn't get an invite to a live audition for the first time (yes, I'm sure I passed the test). Hopefully I'll fare better this year. For the record, I hope to be auditioning in NYC, within walking distance of both my apartment and office.
Sounds similar to my story, though I've had more frequent cases of passing the test and not getting an audition. Maybe I'll see you in NYC: definitely not in walking distance to my house, but my audition site nonetheless.
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by Bamaman »

Suze wrote:Yeah it's the same hotel, new name. You can use Hilton points to pay for the room, but I think you won't get the Jeopardy rate, and you don't get the free breakfast tickets. A couple people from my taping group used points.
Good luck to everyone who takes the test. :)
What is the current Jeopardy! rate?
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mam418
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by mam418 »

Bamaman wrote:
Suze wrote:Yeah it's the same hotel, new name. You can use Hilton points to pay for the room, but I think you won't get the Jeopardy rate, and you don't get the free breakfast tickets. A couple people from my taping group used points.
Good luck to everyone who takes the test. :)
What is the current Jeopardy! rate?
In February, it was $105/night. (And you get breakfast vouchers, saves you $10 or so.)
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by dhkendall »

mam418 wrote:
Bamaman wrote:
Suze wrote:Yeah it's the same hotel, new name. You can use Hilton points to pay for the room, but I think you won't get the Jeopardy rate, and you don't get the free breakfast tickets. A couple people from my taping group used points.
Good luck to everyone who takes the test. :)
What is the current Jeopardy! rate?
In February, it was $105/night. (And you get breakfast vouchers, saves you $10 or so.)
Must be a pretty nice hotel if that's the discounted rate! Either that, or rates for LA-area hotels are worse than I thought!
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by Suze »

Yes, I think $104 is what they quoted me when I booked the room. Close enough. I recall the breakfast buffet costing about $18 a piece when I got the bill, before giving them the tickets. Not the greatest breakfast actually, but if you're getting it for free, it's perfectly fine.
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by dhkendall »

mam418 wrote:
Bamaman wrote:
Suze wrote:Yeah it's the same hotel, new name. You can use Hilton points to pay for the room, but I think you won't get the Jeopardy rate, and you don't get the free breakfast tickets. A couple people from my taping group used points.
Good luck to everyone who takes the test. :)
What is the current Jeopardy! rate?
In February, it was $105/night. (And you get breakfast vouchers, saves you $10 or so.)
Must be a pretty nice hotel if that's the discounted rate! Either that, or rates for LA-area hotels are worse than I thought!
"Jeopardy! is two parts luck and one part luck" - Me

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mam418
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by mam418 »

dhkendall wrote:
mam418 wrote:
Bamaman wrote: What is the current Jeopardy! rate?
In February, it was $105/night. (And you get breakfast vouchers, saves you $10 or so.)
Must be a pretty nice hotel if that's the discounted rate! Either that, or rates for LA-area hotels are worse than I thought!
A little of both... it was a fine hotel, not hugely fancy, but nice. And it had the advantage of the free shuttle to the studios for the contestants, which was a help as we didn't plan to rent a car. (There's a free shuttle to the airport, too.) I live in New England (aka land of expensive hotels), too, so it didn't seem too bad.
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

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mam418 wrote:In February, it was $105/night. (And you get breakfast vouchers, saves you $10 or so.)
when i booked in august, i called the doubletree culver city and asked to reserve a room on the jeopardy rate. they connected me to the national hotline, who did not know anything about a special rate for jeopardy contestants. so i booked at the regular rate, which was also $105 although i had to play up front and it was non-refundable. and i didn't get the breakfast tickets, which were worth far more than $10—the buffet breakfast cost $20.95/person, so two breakfast tix = a lot of money. i splurged on breakfast out of my own pockets the first morning (and oh god, was it worth it... yum) but the second morning i just devoured fruit and doughnuts in the green room while everybody else filled out their paperwork.

when i came back the next week, i think i had to ask for the sony rate, not the jeopardy rate, in order to get the breakfast tickets.
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by mam418 »

jpahk wrote:
mam418 wrote:In February, it was $105/night. (And you get breakfast vouchers, saves you $10 or so.)
when i booked in august, i called the doubletree culver city and asked to reserve a room on the jeopardy rate. they connected me to the national hotline, who did not know anything about a special rate for jeopardy contestants. so i booked at the regular rate, which was also $105 although i had to play up front and it was non-refundable. and i didn't get the breakfast tickets, which were worth far more than $10—the buffet breakfast cost $20.95/person, so two breakfast tix = a lot of money. i splurged on breakfast out of my own pockets the first morning (and oh god, was it worth it... yum) but the second morning i just devoured fruit and doughnuts in the green room while everybody else filled out their paperwork.

when i came back the next week, i think i had to ask for the sony rate, not the jeopardy rate, in order to get the breakfast tickets.
Wow - my brain must have been in shock at the breakfast price, and didn't retain it. (If I knew - the first morning I used my ticket, and my husband paid for his. I was busy looking around at who else was at breakfast trying to figure out which ones were fellow contestants.) The next morning, when I wasn't so single-minded, we just used the two coupons we had left. (We were leaving well before breakfast on Thursday morning.)

Wow. I mean, the waffles were awesome... but I don't know if they were $21 worth of awesome...
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Re: The 2012 online test for adults

Post by Suze »

jpahk wrote:
mam418 wrote:In February, it was $105/night. (And you get breakfast vouchers, saves you $10 or so.)
when i booked in august, i called the doubletree culver city and asked to reserve a room on the jeopardy rate. they connected me to the national hotline, who did not know anything about a special rate for jeopardy contestants. so i booked at the regular rate, which was also $105 although i had to play up front and it was non-refundable. and i didn't get the breakfast tickets, which were worth far more than $10—the buffet breakfast cost $20.95/person, so two breakfast tix = a lot of money. i splurged on breakfast out of my own pockets the first morning (and oh god, was it worth it... yum) but the second morning i just devoured fruit and doughnuts in the green room while everybody else filled out their paperwork.

when i came back the next week, i think i had to ask for the sony rate, not the jeopardy rate, in order to get the breakfast tickets.
I had a bad time with the reservations desk as well when booking. Got bounced back and forth between the location and the national reservation center, both denying the ability to help. They had to connect me through to some special office at the location to finally book the rate. Joe, who played in my game, booked the Jeopardy/Sony rate correctly and all, but they never gave him the breakfast tickets when he arrived. When he asked the desk about it, they were like, We don't know what you're talking about. The Doubletree has a lot of positives, but I probably wouldn't stay there if I ever returned to the area.
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