A day at the site of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. A cold and sobering tale.

[Dover]

We heard on the news that this program (which I've only seen twice) was filming a show in nearby Salado, TX. The news announcer reported that the big reveal would take place that afternoon. That was the first we'd heard about it and though we weren't that familiar with the show we decided on a whim to go check it out.
Now, in retrospect, I wonder if it might be best to go during the week as a volunteer or spectator while construction is going on. I mention this so that if you are ever interested in actually volunteering on a future build the experience might be much different (and better) than ours, since we were only spectators arriving at the very end of the process.
That said, I was quickly reminded upon arriving how different the reality of producing a show
is from what is seen on t.v. First of all it was cold outside with a biting wind. We arrived at the parking area which was filled with cars of people who were also attending the reveal and/or were volunteers. We took a bus about a mile to the house location and were guided into a corraled-off area for spectators.
This area was on a slight hill that sloped down away from the street, so that the further one was from the very front of the area which was just across from the new house, the less one could see. We were back behind several rows of bodies and although this worked great as a windbreak, we couldn't see much. Standing on tiptoes helped a little. There were a large number of good-natured but firmly committed security people as well as local police present in order to keep people from wandering outside their designated areas. The VIP's and 'special guests' were all situated directly in front of the bus where all the action would take place. Our group was a little further down the road and apparently we just played a supporting role for effect and increased noise level. We were instructed in when to cheer, practiced saying "move that bus" in unison, encouraged to increase our volume and enthusiasm, and were warned NOT to look directly at the camera or there would be dire consequences - we would be dropped onto the editing room floor, never to be seen again (((shutter))).
I believe they refer to this as 'warming up the audience'.
They took several recordings of these chants and our group mugshots for later editing purposes, as a big boom camera swept over our heads.

As we waited and waited and waited, we got to know our immediate neighbors in the crowd and learned that this program involved a military fellow who was injured in the shooting that took place at Ft. Hood the year before. He was apparently getting married that very morning (which I suppose the
show would include) and then he and his new wife would be shuttled in a pearly white Rolls
from the wedding location to their new home. They thought the show would air around Valentine's day next year. The house was larger than those in the neighborhood (a fairly new housing development which housed among others, a number of military families) but unlike the ones I'd seen previously on the show, was pretty tastefully done, and didn't stand out like a sore thumb.

The bus pulled up and took its position as anticipation grew. But it quickly became clear after waiting for what seemed a cold and crowded eternity, that things don't move at a fast clip or in real time, as there was lots of preparation, playing with camera lighting, trial runs of the couple's arrival using a car double, and so on and so forth. No sign of the show's hosts (Ty or the design team). When the couple did finally arrive it was almost anti-climatic perhaps in large part because no one could see anything going on in front of the bus. One girl who had climbed on her boyfriend's shoulders squealled out "TY!!!" And others shouted for him to please come over and greet our patient little group. But alas, he never did. One girl was distraught at not seeing Ty,complaining that she had waited there since early in the morning in expectation of seeing him. She had expected him to at least do a dash down the road in front of our group and slap hands as he passed. The reality was that whatever was going on in front of the bus could not be seen or heard. It was not until a production person came over to cue us in our now well rehearsed "move that bus" chant, that we knew that the greeting ceremony part of the show had ended.
The bus moved, everyone cheered and a muddle of people moved toward the house. They were at such a distance it was difficult to make out any recognizable faces with the exception of the bride, still wearing her white wedding dress, and groom in a wheelchair. Ty broke free from the group to grab something from a cameraman and girls squealled his name and begged him for just a wave of recognition. Nope....nada. Then the group disappeared into the house and we were told they wouldn't emerge for several hours as there was so much to show the new couple and a lot of indoor shooting to do. And that was that.

By now the sun was beginning to set and temperatures continued to drop. Everyone headed enmasse toward the bus pickup. This time it took another hour and a half until we were able to board a bus back to the parking lot. People remained remarkably cheerful although all seemed disappointed, sobered by a bitter chill and the realization that though we had actually been present, we wouldn't really 'experience' this event until it aired.

Lesson learned.