Test the Nation Trip: Nerds on Top

By Miss604

SWEEP! SWEEP! SWEEP! That was the chant when it was announced that our celebrity, Samantha Bee and teammate Rick Spence were both crowned top scorers at the end of the night. We were still awaiting the final team results but the bloggers were feeling pretty good at that point.

individual prize winner rick spence

Throughout the evening our team chanted (Bee! Bee! Bee!), hooted and hollered, and talked a fair deal of smack. We were completely enamored with Samantha - who talked to us often, made motions our way and really interacted with “her people - the indoor kids”. Even when other teams would let a rousing “nerd” chant slip in our direction our solidarity was never shaken and we stood strong. It was also rather amusing that a teleprompter was facing our way (and our way only) before the show started. At one point someone rebooted the system and when the Windows 98 start up screen appeared we all had a nice chuckle.

So… was it a sweep? Did Samantha and Rick represent for the Bloggers while some other team won? Of course not, we took it all!

one of many on the winning team!!

With an average of 50 correct answers out of 60, the Bloggers were victorious. It’s been a long day. A long day of cold winds and waiting around watching celebrity impersonators strut their stuff and have diva moments. There are so many witty, snarky and hilarious catch phrases that made me laugh today but I can’t bring my exhausted mind to remember them right now.

I have to say it was a pleasure to meet everyone - from the House impersonator dude, the Surreal Gourmet, Samantha Bee, Mr Geography of the cabbie team, and even “Paul Stanley” who said he practiced wearing his platform shoes for hours by jogging in them. The Flight Crew was impressive, the Borat impersonator was in character all night and freakin hilarious and the backpackers were probably our biggest competition.

Congrats to Rick Spence, and be on the lookout for photos of each person on the blogger team, taken by Rannie. Big thanks to Molly @ the CBC for getting me out here, being very encouraging, and supporting ‘Team Blogger’. Super tons of thanks to my family and friends (who all held viewing parties) and to all those Vancouver bloggers who supported us, watched the show, and played along.

We won’t get to know our individual scores til tomorrow but since the ‘test audiences’ scored an average of 40/60 and our team had 50/60 as an average, I’d say we did pretty darn well. Good times guys (hence the stupid grin on my face all night) and by the way… for the recordBLOGGERS RULE!

Update: John Biehler made some clips and put them on YouTube - video 3, video 2, and video 1 - check out “some of the face of non-mainstream media”.

Update: In case some trackbacks don’t work, here are a few more bloggers (and viewers) who have covered our victory last night - that will surely lead to world domination:

Buzz Bishop - We’re Blogging This
Canadian Entrepreneur - Sweep! Sweep!
Calgary Grit - The Answer is Bee
Jon Arnold - Bloggers 1 Rest of World 0
Lainey Gossip - I Love Winning
Right Between the Eyes - Don’t Wanna Brag, But …
Nunc Scio - The Sweet Smell of Blogger Victory
BlogTo - Backstage Celebrity-ish Interviews
Jonsian Logic - Test the Nation
Unsweetened - We Will Blog You
Pen Machine - Yay for the Indoor Kids!
James Viloria - Results - CBC - Test The Nation: Trivia
Airdrie - Bloggers Victorious
Five Blondes - Bloggers Emerge Victorious
Buzz Canuck - Bloggers are the Smartest
Ryan - Post Game Show
Amber Mac - Are Bloggers Smarter…

Update: More detailed results are in.

32 Comments

  1. Stewart Marshall

    Congratulations Rebecca! Good Job!!!

  2. Kathy

    Congratulations Becky! It was a fun couple hours.

  3. David

    Love that bit about the Windows 98 screen!

    Congratulations, but after all, we kinda expected it. Glad you had a good time, too.

  4. mom604

    Bloggers certainly rule!
    How did you guys all get back to your hotel? The cab drivers all looked a little miffed?

  5. Duane Storey

    Congrats.. I knew you guys would kick ass.

  6. Raul

    I watched part of the show with my friend J, and I mentioned “hey that’s Rebecca, she’s the blogger behind Miss604″ and all that :) pretty sweet. He lives in the West End, and I mentioned that you were a WE girl too :D congrats on a good job Rebecca!

  7. Tanya (aka NetChick)

    YAY!! You guys did great! Sadly, my score was 46. :( I would have pulled down the overall team, had I been there…

    Sounds like you guys had a fabulous time!! :) YAY! I can’t wait to hear more about your experience, hopefully at a meetup soon!

  8. Rick Spence

    Hey, great post, 604. So glad you remembered the line about the “indoor kids.” Hilarious, and all too true.
    Can I borrow a copy of the topmost photo for my blog? Cuz, I already did. Thanks.
    Rick

  9. Miss604

    No worries Rick - congrats!

  10. John

    Great stuff Rebecca (and RIck!).

    I managed to get a couple of video clips of the show on Youtube.

    Get them quick before CBC lawyers break down my door.

  11. Dale

    Great job, Rebecca! You rock girl.

  12. Derek K. Miller

    It was bloggers all the way, nice job! In the lead at the half-way point, top scorer, top celebrity endorsee, top team. If you want your 21st century trivia, get yourself a blogger! (But if you want your meal cooked, your plane flown, or a cab ride, well…)

  13. Rannie Turingan

    It was great meeting you tonight.

    We ROCKED!!

  14. Allan

    More Test pictures here.
    What a fantastic moment in our lives.

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  16. Keira-Anne

    You’ll get your “prize” from me later. *wink*wink*

  17. Nunc Scio » Blog Archive » The Sweet Smell of Blogger Victory

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  18. Jeremy Latham

    Great job on Test the Nation! I can’t say that I’m surprised the bloggers stole the show.

  19. Chad

    Nice seeing someone local on the TV for a change. Hope you had fun in the centre of the universe! Bloggers really do rule… I hope they don’t let it go to their heads though…

  20. carol

    Yay! Team Samantha Bee!!! Congrats. It sounds like fun.

  21. DaveO

    Complete domination! And you scored the triple plugs for highest guerrilla marketing points and then Ms. Bee went right towards you for great facetime at the end.

    I am not sure if i would’ve fit into the bloggers or backpackers category with my respectable 56 (you are safe for now Rick!) but surely you didn’t need my help with the 13 points higher average (IIRC) then the humble cabbies.

    You’d better do a complete recap on Radio Zoom when you get back. Next year, bloggers versus mainstream media!

    BTW, i’d never seen this show before but it was so very Canadian for sure - the most polite, encouraging game show eva - no eliminations and minimal meanness and the trash-talking was just cute.

    Oh yeah, we Tivo’ed the trivia show and that race show and watched them back to back cause that’s the way you’d want us to ;-).

  22. Raul

    The congratulations still hold, although I did write a bit of criticism of the show :D

    http://hummingbird604.blogspot.com/2008/01/test-nation-bloggers-sweep.html

    And I know, I know… I’ll switch to WordPress soon enough! Great job again, bloggers!

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  24. Jenny

    I don’t understand how they were telling us which provinces were leading at certain points when it hadn’t even been on yet in the West?

  25. Chris Magnusson

    @Jenny: Audience participation had been running for a while at cbc.ca/testthenation.

  26. Raul

    *I also blogged about your victory*

  27. Ariane

    ACK! I get a couple weeks behind on my google reader, and next thing you know, I’ve missed the big show! Way to kick some butt! :-)

  28. Bloggers Rule! - CBC’s Test The Nation | K's Weblog

    [...] the end of the day, the Bloggers prevailed winning all three of the available prizes.  Check out Rebecca’s post on the victory and the official Test The Nation website for [...]

  29. Erica

    Thanks for linking to my article!
    I really enjoyed the show. Bloggers rule!

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