On February 3, Mehlville High School alum Alex Braun heard the three words he had been waiting for since 2018: “Come on down.”
After 16 tries in seven years, Braun – a self-proclaimed “game show geek” – was finally chosen as a contestant on “The Price Is Right.”
“When you’ve been there 16 times, you kind of know how the show runs. You’re kind of playing in your head what would happen, a lot of ‘what-ifs,’ if your name gets called. It’s hard to plan reactions, but I thought about it that day, about running across the studio to say ‘hi’ to my four friends. All went out the door when I saw my name on the poster board; my mind went blank,” Braun said.
Though the episode Braun appeared on aired in May, it was filmed in February. Despite single-digit temperatures and nine inches of snow in St. Louis, Braun and four friends traveled to California to attend the filming of the show’s 10,000th episode. The group just happened to go to the tapings the day before the 10,000th episode was filmed, and that’s when Braun was chosen.
After being called down to “Contestants Row,” Braun bid on a handcrafted firepit, beating his competitor by $1 to win the prize.
“I was the last bidder so I had a big advantage. I kept looking at my friends in the audience for bids, and bid $1200 unbeknownst to me (that) Karen on the end had just bid $1200. I immediately bid $1201, the actual price was $1214 – I couldn’t believe it,” Braun said. “I was excited to be called on down, but the fact that I won my way on stage – that was the next level. I was just tackling Drew (Carey), I was just so excited.”
Braun next had the chance to win a trip to Alaska by playing “Side by Side,” a pricing game where players have to choose between two numbers, the correct one being the price of the trip. Based on his gut feeling and the crowd’s reaction, Braun chose $7697 over $9776 – the correct answer to win the vacation, which he plans on taking next spring.
“I’m just looking forward to a trip,” Braun said. “Seriously, just being out of the 48 states is exciting. Part of the package is a sightseeing tour in a rental car, so that’ll be cool.”
Post-filming, especially as he won two coveted prizes, the hardest part for Braun was to keep everything a secret in the three month gap between production and airing. To celebrate when the episode finally came out, Braun had a small viewing party in Maplewood with friends.
“I was antsy to see the final cut,” he said. “Watching myself on ‘Bidders’ Row’ when I’m seeing Drew reading off the price of the fire pit and I’m listening to every syllable and it just started to slowly hit me that I won – I was just so excited.”
Though “The Price Is Right” was the first network show Braun has appeared on, he has been a contestant on multiple other game shows over the past 19 years including “Wheel of Fortune,” “You Bet Your Life with Jay Leno” and “25 Words or Less.”
“Ever since my Nan (grandma) got me hooked on (game shows) as a kid, it’s been a goal of mine to be a contestant, Braun said. “God did not give me great athletic abilities, but I love to have fun and play games. These ones don’t require being physical.”
Despite Braun’s dreams of appearing on “The Price Is Right” being answered, he hopes to compete on more shows in the future. Per industry rules, he has to wait a year before appearing on any televised game show, but his sights are on “$100,000 Pyramid.” Braun’s next goal is to win a car, as he has already won a trip and cash.
“Then I’ll have the trifecta covered,” he said.
Though the prizes are a draw to enter as a game show contestant, Braun believes the most important thing is to “do it for the fun.”
“You can’t go there with the mindset of ‘I want to make my car payment, I could win this much money, I could buy a new deck.’ That kind of takes away from the experience,” he said. “You just have to go out there and have fun.”
Watch Braun compete on “The Price Is Right” on Paramount+, The Roku Channel and CBS. His episode, number 1033L, aired on May 21.