WRAL-TV will produce the N.C. lottery drawings with the help of a team of hosts: (l to r) Kevin Jenkins, Tina Seldin Cash, Sophia LeFrere & Dave Kent.

North Carolina is launching the first of its own drawing games in the North Carolina Education Lottery tonight, Friday, October 6, 2006, and WRAL-TV will bring it live to your living room.   The Raleigh station has selected four hosts to deliver the winning lottery numbers to viewers across the state.

It’s a Draw – The Games
The two North Carolina drawing games will be Carolina Pick 3 and Carolina Cash 5.  In Carolina Pick 3, players choose a 3-digit number and have 1 in 1,000 odds of winning.  Carolina Cash 5 is much like the multi-state Powerball game.  Players choose five numbers and for each night there is no winner, the pot is rolled over and can reach up to $700,000 or more.

Three machines will be randomly rotated for the live drawings.

Hosts rehearse their new gig with scripts, set and test drawings.

Tina Seldin Cash, a former WRAL reporter, will host weeknights.

Carolina Pick 3 tickets go on sale Friday, October 6th, and the first drawing will take place during WRAL-TV’s 11pm News that same day.  Carolina Cash 5 tickets go on sale several weeks later on October 27th.

Daily Drawing Hosts
To bring these new drawings to you, WRAL-TV has selected hosts, built a set, and put together a production you’ll be eager to see. 

Tina Seldin Cash will host the N.C. lottery drawings Monday - Friday nights. Seldin Cash worked as WRAL-TV's Money Desk anchor/reporter from 1984-1991. She spent 15 years in television before working in marketing and now focuses on music. She sings in the band Avalanche, based in Goldsboro, among other musical endeavors.

Kevin Jenkins will rotate weekend lottery drawing hosting with Sophia LeFrere. Currently the on-field announcer for the Durham Bulls & public address announcer for N.C. Central University, Jenkins is no stranger to the mike.

Sophia LeFrere will alternate weekends with Jenkins in her role as host for WRAL-TV's production of the N.C. Education Lottery Drawings. LeFrere is a native Canadian who moved to North Carolina in the last year.  She has a degree in Professional Arts and an impressive background on stage and on camera.

Dave Kent will pinch hit for the other three lottery hosts. Kent is a graduate of the University of Central Michigan and has worked in radio for many years. He lives in Raleigh with his wife of 5 years, WRAL-TV Reporter Kelcey Carlson. They are expecting their first child early next year!

These drawings will be brought to N.C. viewers live every night at 11:22pm during WRAL-TV’s late news.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered
The lottery is serious business and many security procedures are in place to maintain the integrity of the drawings.  Lottery security officers will be on location two hours before and two hours after every drawing to make sure the numbers are random.

Lottery officials will chose one of three machines and three of the nine sets of balls randomly for each drawing.  The machines and the balls are kept in a secure location at WRAL-TV, and two people with access cards will be required to enter the secure room.  An external auditor will monitor the drawing procedures.

Watch
Watch North Carolina’s first lottery drawing tonight, Friday, October 6th, produced live at WRAL-TV.  The drawings can be see statewide on the following stations:

• WRAL-TV, Raleigh
• WCNC-TV, Charlotte
• WITN-TV, Washington
• WILM-TV, Wilmington

*All WRAL-TV and CBC Corporate employees and immediate family members living in their homes are ineligible to purchase tickets for any lottery drawing produced by WRAL-TV.*

Thanks to WRAL-TV's Al Robinson for these capcom photos.