Here is some info from two eyewitness accounts!! Thanks to you both! ( I have removed any identifying or personal info.)
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* They started right at 7am, and we only had one minute to give our pitch.
* There were teams from everywhere! Hawaii, Georgia, lots of NY/NJ...shocking to me that people would travel from so far away!
* The lines were outside of the restaurant, and the check in desk was at a side door. The cameras were set up right inside the door.
* We got there at 6:15 and had our audition right before **. At that point, I'd say we were about the 125th pair to audition.
* Based on the line that was still there when we left, it looked like there may have been another 125 pairs or so waiting to go. There didn't seem to be many additional people trickling in, so my guess is that everyone who showed up was going to be able to audition.
* They absolutely would not take full application packets at the check-in desk. The local CBS affiliate ...had said beforehand that whatever we brought would be turned over to casting. So that was disappointing.
* There did not appear to be anyone official from World Race Productions or from CBS national. If they were there, they were stealth.
* From what one of the organizers said to a group, he was part of a marketing company that the local CBS affiliate uses for promotion. All he said was that this was the first of more open calls to come for next year's races. (He even sited NY, Florida, etc, as future casting call sites.) My guess is he was making it all up. It was impossible to tell which of the organizers were from that marketing company or which were from the local CBS affiliate (if any).
* There was a camera guy from CBS-4, but we didn't see any aggressive interviewing of hopefuls for the local news. I don't even think they brought a reporter with them.
* Everyone we talked to was really nice, and there were very few costumes, etc. Just a few teams in matching T-shirts or full matching outfits.
And from our second team:
* We got there at 6, already a huge line, people in chairs, etc.
* I would estimate close to 500 teams, at least 400, so 800-1000 people.
* We talked to people in line from texas, california, Connecticut and New Jersey.
* We had filled out applications, got the pictures, made a video, etc. but didn't need any of that stuff. it seemed to be just the local station doing it .
* No one knew if it was for TAR 18, they truly seemed to have no clue about it.
* We also heard of another call in Atlantic City in September .
*They took our license infomation along with email and cell phone numbers.
*We did a 60 second video.