Our little group didn't get to sit together this night. Michelle, Laura, Christina, Elyse, and Iris were in the right-hand section on the inner aisle. Sarah ended up in the left-hand section on the Drew aisle. While Dawn, Melanie, and I were in the right-hand side of the center section in the second row. I was on the aisle. My seat was much better for hearing what the actors were saying than Friday night. But it also meant that I was way too close to the cameras — both in terms of seeing what was happening on stage and in terms of .... Other things as well.

While the rest of the audience was filling in, I spent some time watching the woman in charge of the Drew section and her assistant who monitored the rest of the audience. We've all known that you need to be one of the beautiful people (or the "really miserable bastards" as Dan calls them) in order to be seated behind Drew. But the seating process is much more elaborate than that. The woman in charge of the Drew section approaches the audience arrangement with all the care of a professional window dresser or a professional set designer which she probably is. Audience member heights, clothing color, gender all factor into her decisions as to who sits where in that section. One time there were two couples sitting next to each other. The couples were sitting in a man, woman, woman, man arrangement. She asked the couple to switch seats so that the arrangement would be man, woman, man, woman. People wearing white tops were asked to put on sweaters or jackets. People wearing T-shirts with large designs were asked to wear the shirts backwards. Entire sections of a row would be flipped so that the color scheme was more pleasing. While the woman arranged the Drew section, her assistant was scanning the rest of the audience. He was looking for potential Drew section members primarily. But he was also responsible for guaranteeing our overall look. Hats were forbidden. An elderly woman whose was a high-up production member's mother was asked to remove her "Sunday Best" hat that she was wearing. Sunglasses weren't allowed on top of your head. A woman in front of me was asked to remove hers. She didn't have any place to put them and ended up holding them all night. I even came under his scrutiny. I had slipped my glasses over my dress neckline because I didn't want to put them on until the taping began. He asked me if I planned to wear them during the show. I was allowed to keep them on the dress after I assured him that I would put them on once the taping started. (I did.) The whole process left me with a new appreciation for the effort that goes into creating the show's atmosphere.

Just before Keith Richmond started his bit, I saw a brunette come in with three small children. The oldest child had to be about 13 years below the minimum attendance age of 18. They sat on the studio floor in front of the left section. I was very surprised to see them because the children were so young and would obviously be on-camera in that location. Then Keith stepped out and introduced Dan Patterson as on Friday. Dan launched into the same speech he gave us Friday almost verbatim. Part of what Dan tells us is about when we should look at the overhead monitors — just in case we couldn't figure it out for ourselves, I guess.

Naturally, the audience laughs at the obscenity, which Dan used every night. But this night, Dan stopped right afterwards and went on: "I just realized that my kids are in the audience. [Taking one step towards the children on the floor.] That's a bad word. Daddy just said a bad word. Don't you say that word." I thought it was a funny and humanizing moment from the man. You won't get to see the children on the episodes though. According to Sarah, they left just before the filming began.

When Dan finished his part, he introduced Drew for the traditional question and answer session. Since I knew about the question and answer session before the trip, I came to LA with a prepared question. My plan had been to raise my hand each night in the hope that I would eventually be called upon. But I chickened out Friday night. I couldn't bring myself to ask the question that night. Tonight, I steeled my courage and raised my hand. Drew pointed to me as the second or third question. Taking a deep breath and throwing caution to the wind, I asked,

Why was Greg so underutilized last season?

Let me state for the record that I don't hold Drew personally responsible for Greg's mistreatment in Season 3. I don't think that Drew has any direct involvement in who plays what games, which games are played, or how the tapings are edited for broadcast. He might have some general say in such things, but that's about all. So I felt a little guilty about putting Drew on the spot like that. Let me also say that I did not expect an answer other than the corporate line to my question. My hope was that someone in mid-to-upper production would hear the question and maybe mention it in passing to Dan someday. Something along the lines of "Hey, there was this woman at one of the tapings. Do you know what she said..." I also thought my question would have more impact if others in the audience chimed in and agreed with me. So I was very pleased when Drew looked over at Keith and asked him if he felt Greg had been underutilized last season. The two of them debated a bit. I tried again to make my point and added, "The fans are really angry." But as soft-spoken as I am, I'm not sure Drew heard me that time. Finally Drew announced that they felt Greg hadn't been underused (not a surprising response) and moved on to another question. I was happy that Keith had been pulled into the discussion because maybe he would mention it to Dan. But I was disappointed that I didn't hear anyone else in the audience react because that would make it easier for Keith to dismiss me. But at least I tried.

After the questions, Drew introduced the cast. Chip was wearing a beautiful short-sleeved blue shirt. I think it was a polo style shirt. Wayne was wearing the wildest outfit I have ever seen him wear. (And he's worn some wild ones.) The shirt had about a dozen different color splotches all over it. The pants looked like they were made of leather. They were a light tan with a pattern on them. To me, the pattern looked like snakeskin. I wanted to get out my sunglasses. Colin was wearing a pink dress shirt and slacks. Ryan wore another casual pullover with the zippered neckline like Friday's shirt. But at least this time, it wasn't a hideous orange plaid. I still didn't care for the shirt style on him, but at least this time, I didn't hate it passionately. After the mid-stage huddle, the actors settled down in their chairs. Christina had told us that Chip would scan the audience looking for the people he knew as soon as he sat down. And sure enough, he did. I watched him looking out at the audience. I could tell exactly when he spotted Christina and the others — he gave this little nod, smiled slightly, and then leaned back in his seat. Shortly thereafter the taping began.

© LKK