Marina Del Rey Woman To Appear On 'Price Is Right' Friday

MARINA DEL REY, CA — Almost every kid who has ever stayed home sick from school has dreamed of appearing on "The Price is Right." One Marina Del Rey woman got to live out her dream in an episode airing Friday.

Lilian Garcia said she has always dreamed of being on the popular game show, now in its 45th season, and even though she has lived in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, the timing was just never right for her to come to a taping of the show — until this year, that is.

Garcia, an alumna of the University of South Carolina, received an invitation to come to a taping of the show during "The Price Is Right — College Rivalry Week." She said she couldn't pass up the chance.

"It was surreal," Garcia said. "They hype you up from the time you were waiting in line to the time you got inside the studio."

The audience's level of excitement during the live taping is exactly how it looks on TV at home, she said. Before the taping begins, the show's announcer, George Gray, pumped the audience up by cracking jokes and made everyone felt really excited to be there, Garcia said.

"He, and the host, Drew Carey, was really funny and personable," she said.

When Garcia's name was called to "come on down," she said she couldn't believe it. She said the reaction that you often see on the show where the contestants were surprised because they couldn't hear their names being called is real because the studio audience is really loud.

Garcia couldn't say how she did on the show or if she won anything, but she did say that once she was on that stage, the experience is overwhelming to the point where she couldn't think straight.

"That's when the audience's advice was really useful — when they shout out the prices," Garcia said. "I couldn't have done it without my alumni friends.

Garcia's episode airs at 10 a.m. Friday on CBS.

Photo courtesy of FremantleMedia North America