Kira Brown watched “The Price Is Right” every morning with her grandmother before going to school.
“It was like a little tradition we had. I even had a ‘Price is Right’ birthday party once when I was 8 or 9,” she said. “I was dedicated.”
In late January, she proudly told her grandmother, Jo Ellen Goodall, some amazing news: She was picked after two Zoom interviews to go on the legendary TV game show in Los Angeles in January. “She is very excited to watch the show.”
Brown also should excite her professors and fellow students at Grand Canyon University, where she is a marketing and advertising major. She will “come on down” during the 9 a.m. Tuesday airing (Phoenix time, Arizona’s Family, channel 5).
Show officials and Brown are restricted from announcing her outcome during the Jan. 23 taping of the show, but Brown gave hints that she might be showing off her skills at guessing prices.
To say that Brown, a junior online student from the Bay Area, was hyped to show off her school pride in the “College Spring Break Edition” is an understatement. She wore a purple shirt with school mascot Thunder on the back and “GCU” on the front, right next to a cutout of host Drew Carey’s face.
She’s just old enough to recall the final days of longtime host Bob Barker, but really she yelled out prices with her grandma to Carey during most of her youth.
“I did get to meet him, and he’s an awesome guy. During commercial breaks he was doing stand-up comedy,” Brown said.
The show was intense.
“You have to always have energy,” she said, and “are always being watched. It was insane. I was chewing gum, really just sucking on it because I was nervous, and I was in back when someone came up to me and said, ‘You have to spit your gum out.’”
She probably knows the price of that gum.
At her little-girl birthday party, they played pricing games next to a cutout of Drew Carey, and Brown knew all the prices, while her schoolmates were flummoxed. “I feel like most of them didn’t know what the show was.”
Brown had been under the tutelage of her grandmother Goodall, who Brown insists has never missed a single morning of “The Price Is Right” that she can remember.
When Brown told her she was going on the show, Goodall didn’t offer any tips. “She knew I watched enough myself to figure it out.”
Brown gained some skills outside of watching the show.
“I think I can attribute a lot of it to my shopping problem,” she said. “I also work in social media marketing for a clothing store, so I am always doing research. You’ll see on the episode it worked out quite well with the pricing and guessing.”
Being a student in the Colangelo College of Business doesn’t hurt, either.
“I love GCU. It really changed the way I view my education. I probably will end up going to GCU for my master’s,” she said. “I’ve had an amazing experience with my professors.”
The next item up for bids? Education at GCU. “I’d say it’s very affordable,” said Brown, showing off marketing potential.
I love GCU. It really changed the way I view my education.
Kira Brown, GCU marketing/advertising major and "The Price Is Right" contestant
Let’s hope there’s a showcase, screaming a BRAND NEW CAR! or the like, on Tuesday morning.
“It was a great experience and something I can check off my bucket list,” she said. “I’m super excited for everyone to watch it.”
Especially one very special price-guessing grandmother, who doesn’t know the outcome either.
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected] or at 602-639-6764.
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