Freshman reflects upon time as 'The Price is Right' contestant

IU freshman Lindsay Cate was a contestant on “The Price is Right” during the summer. She had the chance to win a vacation, but it slipped though her fingers.

During Tuesday’s airing, host Drew Carey told Cate to “come on down.” She jumped and screamed her way to the bright-green lectern at the foot of the stage. She made a closer guess of the price of a designer outfit, beating three other contestants and winning a chance to play for a prize.

She jumped and screamed her way up to Carey, too.

The game was “Side by Side.” The prize was a four-day trip to Seattle with tickets to a Major League Soccer game.

All Cate had to do was choose between two prices for the cost of the trip. The audience cheered louder for the $4,358 option than the $5,843 option. She chose the former, the wrong answer.

“I really had no clue, I was so nervous,” Cate said. “I just looked at the audience, and I felt like most of them were telling me to go the way I ended up going.”

Cate went to the show with her uncle, John Allstott, who she said could have helped her out.

“That was my initial reaction, to look at him and see which direction he was pointing,” Cate said. “He literally just sat there.”

Allstott said the fact Cate was called down rendered him speechless.

“I was so flabbergasted,” Allstott said. “I don’t remember those few minutes.”

He said they had spent the nine-hour wait to get on the show discussing strategy, and vacation prizes were brought up.

“You stand in line trying to figure out what it takes,” Alstott said. “We knew trips tend to be more expensive.”

Cate said she shouldn’t have listened to the audience.

“I’ll never forget it,” Cate said. “I basically had a 50/50 chance, and I blew it.”

She said she would do it again if she had the chance, though.

“But you can’t be on a game show again within 10 years or so,” she said. “Even if you’ve been on another game show.”