I was able to get an exclusive behind the scenes pass to the MTN studios for the live broadcast of Totally Scrabble Tuesday. While it may be hard to believe, the entire show is run by two people: Totally Scrabble Hamil, the host, and Martin, the everything else guy.

A three camera setup: one for the board, one for the tiles belonging to the Minneapolis team and the infrequently used long shot of the studio are all that are needed, 100% unmanned.

As a lot of college students are away for the holidays, a number of new callers came in along with some very young children made plays. Sadly, a board that looked like "SIAL_RS" (underscore being blank) could have been an easy bingo with the word "SAILORS," pluralizing another word and using a double word score but the kids decided to build "TAIL" instead for an amazing six points. Martin cringed off-camera seeing how easily they could have locked an early strong lead.

Frequently callers would laugh and giggle and another asked the host what he was doing. Hamil said, "I'm playing Scrabble on television, with you!"

Another guy, who sounded high tried to spell "SNAIR. Like a snair drum." Of course, it is not in the Scrabble dictionary spelled that way. After it was looked up the verdict was announced, the caller said simply "Shit."

Lots of very intelligent callers tonight in other words and surprisingly Minneapolis held a lead on Hamil most of the night. Then again, Hamil's tray at many points were all vowels.

Another caller prematurely fired out his word "JIZ" when it wasn't his turn. When it was his turn, it was looked that up and it is not a valid word. The caller said "How about JUD?" Hamil replied while flipping through the dictionary, "I have a bad feeling about this one too."

The game ended in a tie and with a few extra minutes to spare where I was able to take Hamil's chair and answer random people calling.

Good times, and the show was followed by drinks at Mortimer's where we closed them out.