About a decade ago, I read an article about how the networks preview their fall offerings in Las Vegas. Some people even scheduled vacations around the week the screening happened. So anyone ever see one of these? How was it? And if the one you watched was picked up, how much did the screening and the final product differ?

Yes, I got to see several TV shows before they aired, including one sitcom. It was a pretty amazing day, since I didn't go to MGM expecting to get to watch TV shows, and I didn't know that they would be screen testing TV programs at all before visiting MGM.

In early summer 2010, they had a stand out in front of the MGM Grand, in their 'theme park' area, telling people to sign up for TV test viewing. You had to be in the right demographic to get in, and the person who was with me, sadly, was outside all of their demos. I felt bad for him.

I, however, was the right age group, so they took down my cell phone number and asked me to come back the following day. So I did, and got to watch previews of "Mike and Molly", "Hawaii 5-0", some sleazy dating show similar to "Elimidate", and... I forget what the other one was.

Each 'episode' was about 5 minutes long. The testers seated viewers at chairs with a remote control. When you liked something, you turned the knob to the right. When you didn't like something, you turned the knob to the left.

After that, you went in and sat down at a board room table as part of a TV focus group. We talked amongst ourselves, while they recorded our conversations. Then they came back in the room, and they asked each person what they liked and didn't like, and questions like, "If you had one word to describe this show, what would you say about it?", "If you could describe this character, how would you describe him/her?" They jotted down notes on clipboards as they asked questions.

I gave H50 very good ratings, and was excited to see it make the Fall schedule. I felt a tiny bit like I helped make the show happen, and I watch it every week (except repeats). I thought the preview of "Mike and Molly" was pretty funny, and said so during focus testing, but I've never actually watched it on TV. I gave a pretty scathing criticism of the dating show, because it was one of the stupidest things I've ever seen.

I don't know if any changes were made based on the observations we made; I only got to see a short, 5-minute clip of Hawaii 5-0, but it seemed pretty similar to the final product, from what I recall.