UNC pharmacy student wins $10,000 on 'The Price is Right'

When UNC pharmacy student Katie Traylor’s name was called on “The Price is Right” to be a contestant, she couldn’t even hear it over all the screaming.

“I was freaking out. I was hugging everyone. My friend Ashley started crying,” Traylor said. “We were all just overwhelmed and delirious.”

But later they would have an even bigger reason to be excited — she went on to win $10,000.

Traylor and friends were in Los Angeles in March for an annual American Pharmacists Association conference when they went to tape the episode of “The Price is Right” that aired April 16.

“As soon as we found out that it was going to be (filmed) there, we knew we were going to go,” Traylor said.

“It was on (my friend Allison Presnell’s) bucket list. We were determined to do it.”

Presnell said she really wanted to go on the show.

“I searched the web and read online blogs about previous experiences and what you can do to get on the show,” she said. “We really had to be loud, crazy and obnoxious because the producers and other staff were always walking around.”

Traylor said they took this advice seriously.

“I went to the bathroom and I would run, screaming, high fiving people, just trying to get noticed because people were watching us at all times, trying to pick who’s going to be next going on stage,” she said.

Before entering the studio, all audience members had to be interviewed by the producer. When the producer approached Traylor, she gave some unusual answers.

“He asked me what I liked to do and I was dancing around saying, ‘I like painting and drinking.’ It was just like word vomit — just saying something crazy because it didn’t matter if it made sense, you get noticed.”

When the friends finally entered the studio after five hours of waiting, they were asked to sit in the middle of the audience.

Traylor was later called down to contestant row, where she got the chance to compete for a prize on her fourth bid.

She won a hot tub, made it to the stage with Drew Carey and won her $10,000 cash prize, which she will use to buy a new phone, pay loans and thank her friends, she said.

“(My game) had pharmacy items, and I was like, this is perfect for us,” she said.

After the show, Traylor had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, so she couldn’t even tell her husband.

“She called me pretty immediately after winning, and she was still quasi-delirious,” Kevin Traylor said.

“I had no idea she won $10,000 and a hot tub until the day that it aired.”

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.