For Wichita woman, it was time to ‘come on down’

A west Wichita woman moved her son from Miami to Los Angeles and ended her trip with Drew Carey telling her to “come on down” on “The Price Is Right.”

Jo Mahoney, 61, will appear on “The Price Is Right” episode airing Tuesday at 10 a.m. on CBS.

She can’t give any details yet, but Mahoney didn’t walk away empty-handed.

“I watched the show when I was a little girl,” she said. “You know, you just sort of have to pinch yourself.

“It’s one of those things you can put on your bucket list and never get checked off, but when you get on – my gosh, what a highlight,” she said.

She said she doesn’t know why she got picked for the show, but she has an upbeat personality, laughs a lot, and her son says she gets excited just picking up a penny.

Moving her son

Mahoney went to the show’s filming with her 37-year-old son. She had arrived in Los Angeles on a Sunday. That Monday – July 18 – she and her son dropped off the moving truck at 9:30 a.m. and went to “The Price Is Right” studio for the day.

Many other contestants dress up in themed clothing or personalized outfits, but she said she just wore shorts and a shirt from her carry-on bag.

“I thought, ‘what a waste of time,’ you know, because we needed to unpack and I was going to fly back shortly,” she said.

But then Mahoney was called on stage and fared better than she expected.

“We didn’t get much unpacking done that day,” she said with a laugh.

She can’t reveal her winnings or details about the show before it airs. But she said it led them to celebrate at bars and restaurants at an area near the studio called The Grove.

“My son doesn’t get very excited – he’s really calm usually, and he’s pretty pumped about this,” she said.

Mahoney said she’s called “The Price Is Right” a few times since the filming to verify that she won the prizes.

She said she played with “pure luck” and hadn’t practiced price guessing before the show.

“I’m not one that likes to get up in front of people, but there was so much adrenaline running, I wasn’t even nervous,” she said.

This wasn’t her first time on a Hollywood set.

She said she has been in the audience of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Let’s Make a Deal” and went to “The Talk” seven or eight times when she was visiting her son, who lived in Los Angeles before he moved to Miami. “The Talk” played on a TV in her kitchen Monday while a folder from “The Price Is Right” sat on her kitchen table, with details about her winnings.

In December, she said, she plans to visit Los Angeles with a friend who has been diagnosed with colon cancer and wants to visit “The Talk” and see the city.

She said she’s received some audience giveaways from “The Talk,” including a gold necklace and some children’s clothes and toys. But “The Price Is Right,” she said, was “life changing.”

“To have no expectations – my mind was just on unpacking and putting stuff away – and to have your whole life changed,” she said.

She said she looks forward to being able to openly talk about the show.

“It’s hard when you’re excited,” she said. “I’ve tried to refrain myself.”

She also said she’s a bit nervous to watch the show, which she plans to do in Hutchinson with her brother and sister-in-law.

“I just know I made a fool of myself,” she said with a laugh. “I may be crawling under a rock after tomorrow.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2016 at 8:07 PM with the headline "For Wichita woman, it was time to ‘come on down’."