A Delaware County resident could win cash and fabulous prizes this week on an iconic television game show.
Leah Parsons of Delaware will be a contestant on the Friday, Oct. 23, episode of “The Price is Right” on CBS. The show is scheduled to air at 11 a.m. Friday.
Parsons, who is a travel nurse and is currently working in California, said she was inspired to try her luck at getting on stage by her friend, Krista DeNardo. DeNardo is also a nurse.
“She had been on before, and her mom had been on before, so I feel like she had this special ingredient to be able to get on the show and have her name called,” Parsons said.
Parsons said she secured tickets for the show about a month ahead of time and then showed up at the studio to wait and see if that would be her lucky day. Her husband, Justin Parsons, and her friend, Krista, went with her to the show. She said the experience was incredible.
“The energy there is just is so exciting,” she said. “And everyone is loud and jumping around and have their own chants. They’re from different groups, different schools, different cities. Something Krista told me was to be very flamboyant and very out there type of excitable. But there are a lot of people like that so I thought, how am I going to stick out?”
Representatives from “The Price is Right” chose Parsons to be interviewed as one of the potential contestants. She said some of those in the crowd who had been so outgoing previously, were strangely subdued during the interview session.
“Everyone froze. No one was being excitable and the other answers were so boring,” she said. “I was like, what happened to these people? I kept up the momentum. I’m a very dramatic person, so it really wasn’t that hard to be that excitable.”
Once inside the studio and with the show underway, Parsons said the intensity of the experience increased.
“Even if you’re not called, it’s just exciting to be there,” she said.
Parsons said she became somewhat anxious after the first half of the show passed without her name being called, but her husband kept encouraging her to stay positive and excited.
And then the big moment came.
“I thought I heard my name and I looked at the guy holding the name card on stage, and it had my name on it, and I had like this mini heart attack, panic attack, freaked-out moment,” she said. “I had my girlfriend, Krista, to the left of me and my husband to the right of me, and I immediately turned to the left and hugged her and we were jumping up and down, and then I turned and I ran right past my husband. Didn’t even high-five him or hug him or say ‘I love you’ or anything like that. I just flew right by my husband. I felt so bad after. I didn’t realize I did it until way after.”
Parsons did make it to the stage where the excitement continued.
“The first thing I did was I asked (show host) Drew Carey permission to give him a kiss on the cheek,” she said. “So I got to give Drew a big hug and a kiss. Everything was so surreal. The whole time I was on stage, it really felt like a dream. Even afterwards, it was like I can’t believe this just happened. I can’t believe I did that. I would say, next to my wedding day, it was the most exciting, fun day of my life. It was so great.”
So how did she do? She isn’t allowed to give away details, so you’ll have to tune in to find out.
After running for nine years on NBC and later ABC with Bill Cullen as host, “The Price is Right” made its CBS debut on Sept. 4, 1972. Bob Barker began his nearly 40-year run as host when the show moved to CBS. Barker served in that role until he retired in 2007. Comedian and actor Drew Carey then took over as host of the program in August 2007 and continues in that role today.
