SANDPOINT — "America Says" is a game show where two teams of families and friends compete for $15,000 by guessing Americans' responses to survey questions.

"It's kind of like 'Family Feud,' where they poll America with all these questions and you have to guess what the closest thing is going to be to the answer," said Sandpoint native Lane Smith, who will make an appearance as a contestant on "America Says" this week.

Smith's team was "College Buddies," which included himself and three of his friends and former classmates from Biola University in California. One day, he said, he got a text from one of his friends asking if he wanted to audition for a game show. Smith said he didn't know what the gameshow was, but it was close by, so he decided to check it out.

The group went to the audition in Hollywood, Calif., and about a week later got the phone call that they would be on the show. When they arrived, he said, his group went into a small room where they practiced for the show and went over any legal issues that might come up.

In the studio, they met the host, actor John Michael Higgins. Smith said his team went up against a team of women called the "Lake Crew," as they all live at a lake. Once introductions were made, the show was underway.

"It was wild," Smith said. "It was super even for the first two rounds, but the more rounds you go on, the more points you get. So then we were down by quite a bit, because these ladies were nailing it."

Several of the questions aimed at his team, he said, were specifically targeted toward women, such as "Things your husband would say to you when you get home from work?" With four men on the "College Buddies" team, Smith said they still did pretty well.

While he couldn't reveal how the rest of the show went, he said it was "back and forth for so long."

"Usually in a game, you know if you are doing well and if you are going to move forward," Smith said, adding that as the rounds went on, the group realized it could go either way.  

The game show is filmed before a live audience, and Smith said there was "a lot" of energy in the room. And his group may have been "egging on" the crowd a bit, he said.

Smith was raised in Sandpoint for much of his youth, moving to California when he went off to college six years ago. Since graduating in 2015, Smith works as a professional photographer and videographer and has his own studio in California. Smith was hired to do an official video for this year's Festival at Sandpoint, and is in town with his team until next Tuesday.

To find out how Smith and his "College Buddies" fared on "America Says," the episode will air at 2 p.m. PST on Thursday on the GSN channel.