'Ellen' Show Twitter Contest Sends Students into Frenzy in Quest for Prizes

Christine Clark | October 19, 2009

Excitement started building in the Price Center about 4 p.m. Thursday when DeGeneres announced that the contest would soon begin.

Ellen DeGeneres created a Twitter frenzy Thursday night at the Price Center as hundreds of students gathered to enter her Twitter Challenge contest.

DeGeneres, who has more than 3.5 million followers on Twitter, started hinting to UC San Diego students Wednesday night that her show would come to campus when she tweeted “I'm doing another Twitter game tomorrow, and the location is a big surprise. On an unrelated note: UCSD students-practice your surprise faces!”

Five UC San Diego students won trips to Los Angeles and tickets to one of DeGeneres’ 12 Days of Giveaway tapings, where they can win blue ray DVD players, BlackBerries, iPods and other prizes.

Hundreds of students gathered at the Price Center Thursday night to enter in the Ellen DeGeneres Twitter Challenge contest.

Excitement started building in the Price Center about 4 p.m. Thursday when DeGeneres announced that the contest would soon begin. “I’ve been here all afternoon.” Sixth College junior Jacqueline Win said. “I love Ellen. I signed up for Twitter just because of her.” Win and her other friends from Sixth College eagerly checked their cell phones for Twitter updates throughout the hour. “Ellen also did this at UC Berkeley and my friend there said it is going to be insane here,” junior Christian Meshesha said. “She gives away great prizes. I heard she might give away a truck.”

The crowd erupted at 5:45 p.m. when DeGeneres announced the challenge: “Students of UCSD: The first people to bring Aaron any kind of corn at the Price Center are in the running for an incredible prize.” Students rushed to the Sunshine Market to buy chips, southwestern salads, and popcorn. One student brought back a tortilla from Rubio’s. Some held single kernels of corn. Campus police responded to some activities where a few students removed items from stores without paying first.

The show’s field producer, Aaron Pinkston, selected a few students to enter in the next challenge.

Students eagerly checked their cell phones for Twitter updates throughout the hour.

Winners were taken to the second floor of Price Center where the production crew was filming. DeGeneres gave the group of students the next challenge: have a picture taken of themselves wearing nothing but a red towel with someone in any kind of uniform in less than 15 minutes. Le Bui did it in less than five minutes; the student found a custodian in the Price Center and borrowed his red cleaning towel. He quickly donned the towel and posed with the smiling custodian.

Austyn Gabig started calling her friends on campus to see if anyone could bring her towel and, luckily, a friend at Sixth College was doing laundry and rushed a sopping wet towel to Gabig. “I was full of adrenaline,” she said. “I found a community service officer when I walked into Price Center. My phone doesn’t have Internet access, but a girl in the market took our picture and e-mailed it to The Ellen Show.”

For the first challenge, students had to bring Aaron Pinkston, Ellen Show field producer, any kind of corn to get in the running for prizes.

Gabig, Bui and the other winners all stood with Pinkston, while Ellen evaluated the pictures. Although she was supposed to give one prize away to the student with the best picture, Ellen decided to award all five for their efforts.

One of the winners, Michael Kirkpatrick, called his mom after the taping. “She’s a huge Ellen fan,” he said. “She’s very happy for me.”

Gabig is a longtime Ellen fan who went to an Ellen Show taping when she was in high school. “I really enjoy watching her show. I just think she is hilarious,” she said. “It was definitely an experience wearing the towel, but winning the competition was totally worth it!”

The Ellen Show competition will air at 3 p.m. Monday, on KNSD.