Pievate I's

So as promised, I did NOT watch last week’s premiere episode of Crime Scene Kitchen. I relegated everyone in my household who did watch into a different room for viewing and then I shared a sleeve of Ritz crackers with our dog and watched House Hunters. Jeanne defied all odds and stayed up past her 7 pm bedtime to watch…and then proceeded to text me non-stop that I should be watching because we weren’t even in the episode.

The show is set up bracket style with a start of 12 teams. During our stay in California, we never had the opportunity to interact with the opposing bracket and so short of recognizing them from a fleeting moment in the hotel lobby, I literally know nothing about them. In order to limit our interactions (and as a COVID precaution), the hotel gym and pool were off-limits, as was just hanging out in the lobby…so our time together as teams was limited. In fact, upon arrival in California, we didn’t even know how many teams were playing in the competition. We also filmed on separate schedules…so the first bracket (the ones you watched last week) filmed for two long days and then the entire show production had a day off and then the second bracket (ours) filmed for two long days. And then the entire show production had a day off and the cycle repeats. For us this meant two 16 hour days, followed by three days in the hotel.

Logistically, every effort was made to keep us all separate - even within in our bracket. We were transported separately by team by van from the hotel to the sound stage. Each team had a private trailer so that we could hang out during the shoot, plus eat and do wardrobe changes. On our filming days, our phones were confiscated from us for the duration of the shoot. (I read a lot and Jeanne watched all the activity out of the window, watched Court TV, and paced around when she was impatient.) For example, we started with hair, makeup, and wardrobe. Then we would wait a bit. Then we would be microphoned and then we would do pre-competition interviews. And then we would wait and then we would do the crime scene…and then we would do the actual competition. And then we would wait to do our judge’s table presentations. And then for judging. And then for our post-interviews. And then to be un-microphoned and change back into different clothes to head back to the hotel. That sounds like a lot, I know…but it didn’t feel that long because there was so much activity. We also had two production assistants that were a delight and kept us informed and on schedule. They also regaled us with tales of all the interesting shows they’ve worked for and so we were never bored honestly. It’s important to note here that literally every person that we worked with on production was just a delight.

Our bracket makes the initial appearance tomorrow night…so for all of you waiting for the big debut, settle in at 8 pm. I’m only not watching because I am by far my very worst critic. I can’t tell you what we make, but I can promise you that we forget the cameras are there and we are completely on-brand to our normal in-store shenanigans and you probably won’t be disappointed. And neither will my dog, since he’s always up to share a sleeve of crackers…