It was an exciting month of June for former St. Paul resident Kelsey Pyle. On June 18, she married her husband, Shawn, and by the following week, she was in Los Angeles, California, where she appeared on the well-known game show, The Price Is Right.
“It was so much fun,” says Kelsey, whose parents Dave and Paulette Mistol, along with other family and friends, still reside in St. Paul. She adds that although she wasn’t allowed to tell many people of her success until the show aired, which included winning a car, she did eventually tell her mom and some very close friends.
Going to The Price Is Right was a must during Kelsey and Shawn’s honeymoon in L.A. The pair made up shirts with each other’s photos prior to the trip and stood in line early to ensure their spot in the studio. But after waiting in line for hours and reaching the front, Kelsey and Shawn were turned away.
Kelsey admits that she was pretty upset, but thankfully, some of the staff realized her dismay and told the pair to come back early the next day. After another day of waiting around, being interviewed by the show’s producers and a little more waiting around, Kelsey and Shawn took their seats in the very front row of the studio.
And as the first contestants were motioned to Contestants’ Row at the beginning of the game show, Kelsey would see her name displayed. As excited and nervous as she was, she would make her way to the front where it would take five tries, bidding on a variety of potential prizes, to actually get up on stage.
“Shawn didn’t even hug me at first, he was just staring,” says Kelsey of her husband’s reaction to seeing his new wife’s name being called. Once Kelsey successfully bid on some crystal glasses, she went to the front of the stage to play the game Any Number.
It was a close call, but Kelsey managed to guess enough correct numbers to fill in the blanks and won a brand new car, a 2011 Nissan Juke. In the clip available on Youtube, Kelsey’s nerves are pretty obvious, but one thing that didn’t make her nervous was standing next to the well-known game show host.
“Drew Carey was seriously so nice,” says Kelsey, adding “He didn’t make me nervous at all, he made a lot of jokes which made me very comfortable. Even after I played the game and went back to sit down he came up to me and asked me all about my husband and I.”
Usually, contestants aren’t allowed to trade prizes won on the show for cash, explains Kelsey, but because the car would have had to cross the U.S./Canada border, she has been offered cash in place of the prizes won on the show.
And because of taxes on prizes won in the U.S., Kelsey and Shawn won’t get the entire value of their prizes back. Some will go to the state of California, while a third of the value will go to the IRS. Kelsey says she is working with a company from Eastern Canada to help get some of that money back.
After three long months of keeping her secret, Kelsey was finally allowed to tell people to watch the episode, which aired on Sept. 30 and share in her excitement. Kelsey says her Facebook account was full of action after the episode aired, with friends and family congratulating her and watching the clip posted on Youtube.
“It truly felt like a dream,” says Kelsey, adding, “My husband and I both didn’t really believe it happened until we finally saw it on TV three months after taping the show.” Seeing people’s reactions as they watched the episode was also a great experience, she says.
And now, Kelsey and Shawn are waiting to receive their prize money from the show, which will total about $14,000 right now, with about $6,000 more if the couple is successful in getting back some of the taxes that have to be paid. Kelsey plans on actually using some of the money to help purchase a new car in the near future.
