Gameshows & Travel Expenses

Gameshows and travel expenses. Unless you live in New York City or Los Angeles, they're hard to avoid. To be a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, I had to travel to New York twice – once to audition and once for the taping. Who paid those travel expenses? And how much did these trips cost?



Did Millionaire pay your travel expenses?
No, I had to pay all my own expenses, both when I traveled to New York to audition and when I traveled to New York for the actual taping. In the Regis era, I DO believe the show paid travel expenses – but that was when contestants had to win a "fast-finger" round just to make it into the Millionaire hot seat. Today's Millionaire format, which I think is much better, pretty much guarantees that if you show up on your taping day (unless you're drunk, disorderly, or abusive -- and I'm not kidding), you'll make it onto the show. To me, that's worth hotel and airfare money.

How much were your Millionaire travel expenses?
I spent about $2,000 total for Millionaire-related travel expenses. This included airfare, hotel and food for two trips to New York – the first trip for the Millionaire gameshow audition and the second trip for the actual taping. The first trip was less expensive, because I had a wonderful friend who joined me as part of a vacation. This meant I had someone to share hotel expenses. The second trip was more expensive, because I had airfare for two people -- me and my husband. We could've invited someone to share our hotel room, but somehow, that didn't seem to be a good idea.

Do other gameshows pay the contestants' travel expenses?
It's difficult to tell from show to show, but I will tell you this: If gameshows have wording like, "If you're going to be in the Los Angeles area, and would like to audition…" you can bet your sweet bippy that you'll be paying for your own travel and hotel. (Yup, meals too.) Because of this, I'd recommend planning your audition as part of a vacation, rather than making it your whole reason for traveling across the country.