‘Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!’ fan lands on public radio quiz show on first try

November 20, 2020  |  By Cheryl Casey

Duxbury wedding photographer and compost entrepreneur Ellen Ross soon will have a voicemail from an NPR "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me" personality after a successful round on the radio quiz show last week. Courtesy photo.

In a year of one bit of bad news after another, we’ll take a win wherever we can get it. For Ellen Ross of Duxbury, one of those wins came on last week’s episode of “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me!,” NPR’s weekly news quiz show.

A “Wait Wait” listener “forever,” Ross, 30, has relied on the program “to consume the news in a fun way,” especially this year. Now she has become part of the news in a fun way, too. Ross was a contestant in the first game of the program called “Who’s Bill This Time?” in which listeners have three chances to guess who scorekeeper Bill Kurtis is quoting from the week’s news. 

Ross usually downloads the podcast episode each week, but one day a few weeks ago she found herself listening to the broadcast on VPR while doing a compost run for her new business, Roots Compost. At several points in the show, listeners are invited to call a phone number to become a contestant.

“I had heard that phone number so many times, I was like, I’m just gonna call in,” Ross explained. 

After leaving a voicemail with her name, where she lived, and a brief description of her work as a business owner and wedding photographer, Ross hung up and waited to hear back.

The Wednesday before taping, she received a call from the “Wait Wait” production team asking if she was interested in being on that week’s show. “I didn’t realize that they get hundreds of people calling in every week. It was a little bit of a shock to find that out after the fact. I thought that only two or three people call in,” she admitted. 

Ross certainly did want to be on the show but worried about the taping taking place between 8 and 10 p.m. on a Thursday night. She told them, “Oh, my goodness, I legitimately am an old lady and I go to bed at 8:30.” They happily accommodated her and scheduled Ross for the earliest game so she could get to bed. “They were so nonchalant about it,” she said.

For those who haven’t heard the program, “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me!” relies on a rotating collection of guest panelists from the world of comedy, news, and social commentary. With pandemic travel and physical distancing precautions taking top priority, the show has gone remote, relying on Zoom for weekly productions.

After calling the Zoom number at the appointed time, Ross was instructed by an automated voice when to unmute herself to talk with host Peter Sagal, Kurtis, and the three panelists, Joanna Hausmann, Alonzo Bodden, and Maeve Higgins. 

In the segment, which runs about 9 minutes, Ross correctly answers the three questions, guessing that Bill Kurtis was quoting President Trump, an immunologist referring to the COVID-19 vaccine, and people complaining about leaf blowers, respectively. In between questions, Sagal and the other panelists engage in banter, joking about the news story.

What aired on the Nov. 14 radio broadcast and podcast episode, however, is an edited version of a nearly 30-minute conversation, Ross said. 

She admitted there were a few bits she wished had made the final cut. When she told them she owned a composting business, “We talked about it for a while, and Peter [Sagal] was like, ‘Well, I have to ask, do you pick up Bernie Sanders’ compost?’” Ross quipped back, “Well, I’m sworn to secrecy on that one. I can’t say.” (For the record, Roots Compost does not service Burlington, according to Ross.)

At another point in the game, recounted Ross, Kurtis exclaimed, “Good girl, Ellen.” Ross really loved that part, but “They cut that out. It was so funny,” she said.

Winning contestants on “Wait Wait” get to choose the voice of their favorite “Wait Wait” personality to record a message on their voicemail. At interview time, Ross hadn’t yet decided on the message or which of the cast to choose.

“You can send them a script of whatever you want and you can ask whoever,” she explained. “I might do Peter, and I might have him do our voicemail for Roots Compost. We’re trying to think of something funny, maybe have him say we may or may not pick up Bernie Sanders’ compost.” 

Readers can hear Ross play along by streaming the episode online at NPR’s website at npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/. 

Cheryl Casey is an associate professor of Communication at Champlain College and president of the Waterbury Historical Society. She lives in Waterbury Center.