The rain poured and the temperature dropped. Chris Brown’s “Run-It” blasted through the loud speakers. Some students danced and others huddled closer together to stay warm. A boy hung outside of the window of the third floor of the Paca House to watch the crowd from afar. Suddenly, a chant of, “Ellen! Ellen! Ellen! Ellen!” grew louder.
It is 6:45 p.m. Wednesday night and filming for the Ellen DeGeneres show is about to begin, but there is a problem. The producers can’t find the boy who is dressed as Rubeus Hagrid (from Harry Potter) and a finalist in the costume contest.
Suddenly, the familiar voice of Ellen is heard through the loudspeaker. “Can you hear me?” she says. The students scream. It is 7 p.m. and the filming of the nationally syndicated talk show, Ellen is about to begin. With or without Hagrid it is time to roll.
The Ellen DeGeneres show came to Towson University on Wednesday night to film a segment that featured a contest for Ellen’s Twitter followers. Students were asked to dress as a creative character from their favorite book and bring a copy of Ellen’s new book, Seriously…I’m Kidding, to the taping.
The crowd started gathering as early as 3:30 p.m. outside of the West Village Commons. The students were notified via a tweet from Ellen herself about where and when to gather on campus.
“Ok, Maryland. Get ready to meet in front of the West Village Commons at @TowsonU at 5 p.m., “ she tweeted. “You’re gonna be on TV! Stay tuned for more info.”
A few hours later she sent out another tweet asking students to come dressed as a creative character from any book and to make sure to bring a copy of her new book.
Three students Nichole Pacifico, John Tune, and Michael Bell, arrived on the scene shortly after 3 p.m. dressed as their favorite character from a book-Ellen DeGeneres. They had printed three life size images of her face and cut holes in the eyes so they could wear them as a mask.
A few minutes after they got there, they encountered a problem. Ellen just sent a tweet saying not to dress like her.
They sat in the middle of the crowd scrambling to come up with a new idea. Nichole had some black eyeliner and all three of them had black jackets. “What about the Three Blind Mice?” she said.
Nichole drew whiskers with her eyeliner onto their faces and they all put on sunglasses. They were still in the dark about what was going to happen, but they missed class for this and were ready for whatever was going to happen.
At 5 p.m. the producers started judging the costumes. No one was sure what they were looking for in their critique. In fact, no one was really sure what was going on and about to happen. A significant portion of the crowd that gathered at 5 p.m. left within 30 minutes because they didn’t think anything else exciting was going to happen.
Soon the producers began announcing finalists for the costume contest. The Three Blind Mice were one of the finalists.
At 7 p.m. the show began filming. Ellen did not attend the event, but the crowd was able to communicate with her via a satellite connection.
What was going to happen on the show remained a mystery until it unfolded live.The finalists had no idea if they were going to be featured or what they would be asked to do.
Halfway through the show Ellen announced that the finalists that were chosen had to read an excerpt from her new book as dramatically as they could. The winner would receive a $5,000 Barnes & Noble gift card.
During the break the finalists anxiously practiced their reading. Some were laughing, others were crying, and many were singing and dancing.
A producer got on a megaphone and yelled at the crowd to move back to give the finalists space to perform.
“If you are not moving, I am looking at you,” she said. “Yellow Hoodie! Grey Hoodie! Move back! We need you guys to cover the lens!”
After the break, it was time for the finalists to perform. The Three Blind Mice did a show stopping performance that included singing and a kick line.
The crowd would have to wait a little bit longer to hear who won the $5,000 grand prize.
But one question continued to rattle the crowd. Why was Towson chosen as the location for the taping?
“Nobody really knows, but rumor is that someone on the crew has a connection to Baltimore so they suggested Towson,” said Deb Moriarty vice president of student affairs at Towson University.
One of the field producers of the show, Aaron Pinkston, is originally from Maryland. Pinkston (who is the brother of actor Ryan Pinkston known for his role on MTV’s Punked) grew up in Highland, Maryland. He attended River Hill High School in Clarksville, Maryland.
Jeannie Klisiewicz, Ellen’s receptionist and on-air correspondent, said that Ellen wanted to do a segment in Baltimore and they found Towson to be the perfect location.
Another break was over and it was time for the winner to be announced.
After missing class, a quick costume change, and an on the fly performance on national television the Three Blind Mice were chosen as the winners.
“I don’t even know what to do right now,” said Pacifico as she cried tears of joy.
The other finalists all received a $200 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Everyone else who dressed up was entered into a raffle to win merchandise from the Ellen Show.
As the crowd died down, a handful of students lingered waiting to take a picture with Klisiewicz.
Up walked a familiar face.
“Hagrid!” Klisiewicz said. “We were looking for you! We wanted to put you on T.V.”
“Yeah, I had to go to class,” he said as he smiled and took a picture with Klisiewicz.
Photography by Christine Long