Nebagamon woman wins car, finds friends on 'The Price is Right'
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Oct. 5—SUPERIOR — Televisions throughout Douglas County were tuned in to "The Price is Right" Sept. 26 when Debbie DeLisi of Lake Nebagamon was asked to come on down.
Cheered in-studio by a local contingent that included her sister Kryssi Plasch, nieces Tayva and Tieryn Plasch and friends Gabby Risley and Madison Bobula, DeLisi was called down under her maiden name of Kaszynski. Not only did she make it on stage, but she also won a brand new car.
Becky Harvey, Missy Yjranainen Cottew and Crystal Ohman tuned in from a Hanco Utilities watch party.
"I've known Debbie for most of my life and she has such a spark on and off screen. It is no surprise that she captured the spotlight. Her charisma is infectious," said Harvey, of Lake Nebagamon.
"(Host) Drew Carey had his work cut out for him to keep up with Debbie's contagious energy," Cottew said.
Carey was amazing, DeLisi said, and he interacted with the whole crowd with so much love.
"I was just smitten with him," she said, calling the entire experience a "weird, out of body dream come true."
Sara Anderson, who works for Bayfield Electric Cooperative in Iron River, doesn't usually have her television on at work. She made an exception Sept. 26.
"I wasn't going to miss seeing one of my closest friends on the show! It was exciting to see Debbie with so much enthusiasm and excitement! Also,to see her sister Kryssi and the girls jumping up and down with excitement was so fun to watch," said Anderson, who graduated from Northwestern High School with DeLisi.
Her parents caught the show at Aces on 29th in Superior.
"We always have 'Price is Right' on at Aces during the week and it was so exciting to watch someone I know on there. We had a small crowd in here and everyone was so into it," said Jill Jacobson at Aces.
This marked DeLisi's second time on the show. She won the audience award for enthusiasm — a "Price is Right" T-shirt signed by George Gray — in 2015.
"If you don't succeed, try, try again," the Lake Nebagamon woman said.
DeLisi almost didn't make it to the show's taping July 28. The
actress, casting director and gardener,
whose work takes her to California and New York, had been in the hospital 48 hours before being called on stage and was still on antibiotics to fight anaplasmosis, contracted from a tick bite.
Plasch special ordered the shirts they wore to the show from Taylor Olson at Shirts Unlimited in Superior. Olson shipped the light blue shirts with #cheddarbabes on the back from Wisconsin overnight; they got there at 8 a.m. the day of the taping.
"We walked in with our matching shirts and thought for sure we would stand out among the crowd, but almost every group has matching shirts and something unique about themselves," said Plasch.
They were the second audience to take seats in the show's brand new studio. Through the long day of sitting, standing and prepping, the audience became a family.
"What was amazing was that people were genuinely cheering for each other to win. We were all strangers that morning, and then after the show was done, we were so bonded with each other. Truly, the cheers you see for the contestants are real and genuine, not just when the cameras were rolling. It was a beautiful human experience as well. Connecting, caring and supporting people we just met. It was such an uplifting experience with such joy. These strangers were actually rooting for each other," Plasch said.
DeLisi was the fourth person called to contestant row, and the first to make it onstage with a savvy bid on a digital camera. She gave out high-fives, threw her arms in the air repeatedly and danced onstage to the song in her head, Flo Rida's "What A Night."
DeLisi's mantra for the experience was: "It's a 'we' world."
Left on the cutting room floor, she said, was a moment when Carey turned to her and jokingly said, "There can be only one star, Debra."
A lucky pick in the key game netted DeLisi the master key. She won appliances, hair tools and a Nissan Sentra. Her shoutout to family, friends and Wisconsin was interrupted when a spin of 95 cents sent her to the showcase showdown, which the other contestant won.
Among the guests at DeLisi's watch party in California Sept. 26 was fellow contestant Omar Brown. The Lake Nebagamon woman has made it her mission to reunite with other contestants from the show.
"We've got to find these people. We have places to go. We have stories to learn. We have lessons to learn. We have questions to ask," she said.
She wants to ask Rosario how she can be grateful and happy all the time, despite never leaving contestants' row, visit with fellow Wisconsinite Timothy and talk more with Kiara's dad.
"It was just such an irreplaceable bond," DeLisi said.
Who knows, she said, maybe they'll form a "Price is Right" nation similar to "The Bachelor" nation.
The Lake Nebagamon woman encouraged others to sign up for tickets through the show's website,
"The tickets are free, which I think the whole world should know," DeLisi said.
Fellow contestants can contact her at
or through her website,
The show, episode 2 of season 52, can be found on Paramount +.
