A Qualicum Bay man may not have won the prize money, but he had a hoot competing on the Battle of the Generations TV game show.
Rich McBride represented Generation X on the new CTV show, which pits contestants of different generations against one another in a trivia challenge.
McBride was the second to be eliminated, but was happy enough for the experience and a trip to Toronto.
“I grew up loving Hollywood Squares and match games, and The Price is Right,” he said. “All those, like celebrities saying kooky, crazy answers for entertainment value. I love all that.”
It was a bit odd to compete and maintain “game show energy” in a set with no live audience, McBride said.
“You do the show and it’s completely silent,” he said with a laugh. “There’s no music, there’s no cheer leading squad, say like on American Ninja or something like that.”
Another funny aspect of filming was the delay in between when a contestant answered a question and the answer appearing on the board, after being programmed in. You’d never know from watching the program, though.
“I understand they’ve edited it quite well,” McBride said. “You kind of have to wait, like, ‘what’s the answer? What’s the answer?’”
Filming the episode took the better part of a day, with the players showing up at 7 a.m. and leaving around 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., depending on how far they advanced.
The day started with hair and makeup, then onto filming their introductory bio segments. McBride introduced himself as being from Lloydminster, Sask., an homage to where he was born.
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The contestants ran through a rehearsal game before filming started in the early afternoon.
“It was a lot of work, I have to say,” he said. As an extrovert, McBride did not feel especially nervous, but said there was an expectation to be entertaining and “on”.
“You wanted to do well for the staff that has brought you out there.”
And of course there was the pressure of that $25,000 prize on the line.
McBride came across a post advertising the opportunity while scrolling Instagram last December just after Christmas. He got a call right away for an interview and by February he was on a free flight to Toronto.
“It’s kind of like a rollercoaster — oh my God, I’m doing a game show!” McBride said. “I’ve got to learn all these rules. So, it was thrilling.”
He decided to arrange for an earlier flight so he could spend a few days in the city and enjoyed visiting an old friend, taking in a Harry Potter theatre show, getting a shave at an old fashioned barber shop and staying in a hotel next to the CN Tower.
He was kicking himself after he missed a question about the movie Titanic, which asked which 1997 blockbuster was the first film in history to result in nominations for best actress and best supporting actress for the same character.
At the time McBride had been watching a series about the famous TV cooking chef Julia Child, which was on his mind the day of the show. He incorrectly answered Julia, ending his game.
McBride said he’s found his trivia strengths are questions from when he was growing up. He nailed a question about mood rings, one of the biggest fashion fads of the 1970s.
When McBride, 58, spoke to the PQB News the day after his episode aired, he had yet to view it.
He was in bed at the time it played on TV. Luckily he can stream it online whenever he is ready.
“I knew that would be available if I could bear to look at it,” he said, and added,“if you’re gonna go on a game show, I say be shameless — go for it.”
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