Ohio State students didn’t exactly jump at the chance to stop being polite and start getting real.

Auditions for “The Real World” took place Saturday at Charlie Bear’s Land of Dance, and turnout was smaller than expected. Senior casting director Shannon McCarthy suggested the reason for the small turnout — only about a couple hundred people showed — may have been because it was both Halloween and Homecoming weekend.

“I think obviously because it’s Homecoming it’s probably a little bit of a lower number than we expected,” she said. “But still we’ve seen over a hundred people and we expect more people to show up, so in no way are we disappointed.”

For Brett Difranco, a fifth-year in communications technology, auditioning for “The Real World” was just a way to kill time.

“I kinda showed up because I had a lot of time to pass before the game tonight,” he said. “I probably have a better chance of being struck by lightning today than I do getting cast for ‘The Real World.'”

Despite the low turnout, McCarthy said she’s found great candidates and is looking forward to the one-on-one on camera interviews.

“We found people that we’ve already liked so far,” McCarthy said, “and we look forward to meeting people throughout the day.”

Perhaps 27-year-old, Josh Weston, a fourth-year in communications at Wright State, was one of the people they “liked.”

“Me and another girl got pulled back to talk to the producer a little more,” Weston said. “She said I’m everything that they would want in a reality show.”

Before his audition, Weston said people have always told him he’d be perfect for “The Real World” but the 27-year-old didn’t think he’d make the cut.

“I’m like please, I’m not doing that because you know 1,000 people are just gonna be auditioning,” Weston said. “There’s crazy people all over the place and they’re going to stick them on TV (and not me).”

But he wasn’t about to let the chance pass him by.

“I live not too far away, so I can’t just let this opportunity pass,” Weston said, “I had to come here and audition.”

Prior to the interviews, applicants were given an application form to fill out. Once that was completed, they were divided into groups of 10 and interviewed by a casting director.

Some applicants described the interviewing process as “basic” and “laid-back.”

“Well I thought it would be a little more in-depth,” said 22-year-old Kyle Shaffer, from Mount Vernon, Ohio. “They said they’re gonna do call backs for one-on-one interviews and I think that (would) be a little bit better than group interviews because you don’t want to copy everyone else.”

McCarthy said Columbus was the “perfect casting place” because of its diversity, its proximity to neighboring cities in Ohio and the fact that OSU is close by.

Applicants were told if chosen to move on in the audition process, they would receive a confirmation phone call at 10 p.m. for a one-on-one interview scheduled for Sunday at an undisclosed location.