Five families get an outing they didn't have to pay for
In Columbia, South Carolina, a local news station has opened a small door for five families — a chance to attend a live theatrical production without the weight of cost. WLTX, partnering with PAW Patrol Live!, is offering four-ticket family packs to 'The Great Pirate Adventure' at Colonial Life Arena on October 30, through a brief sweepstakes window that closes as quickly as it opens. It is a modest civic exchange: attention given, joy received, and a Sunday morning filled with children encountering something familiar made suddenly, wonderfully real.
- Five family four-packs of tickets are on the line — a prize with immediate, practical value for households where children's entertainment competes with household budgets.
- The entry window is narrow, opening October 22 and closing October 27 at 11:59 p.m. ET, creating a compressed urgency for families hoping to enter in time.
- Winners are announced one per day on News19 This Morning, October 24 through 28, turning a routine morning broadcast into a daily moment of anticipation.
- Tickets are delivered digitally through the Ticketmaster app, meaning winners have roughly 36 hours between hearing their name and walking through the arena doors on Sunday morning.
WLTX is giving away five family four-packs of tickets to PAW Patrol Live! 'The Great Pirate Adventure,' a touring children's theatrical production arriving at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia on Sunday, October 30 at 11 a.m. For families with young children, it is the kind of prize that solves a real problem — the show is wanted, the tickets cost money, and here is a chance for someone else to cover it.
Entry opened October 22 on the WLTX Facebook page and closes Thursday, October 27 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. Five winners will be drawn and announced one per day on News19 This Morning, running Monday through Friday, October 24–28. Each winner receives a mobile four-pack delivered via the Ticketmaster app — no physical tickets to misplace, just a phone and a plan.
The show itself is a Nickelodeon production built around PAW Patrol's familiar team of rescue dogs, brought to life on stage with sets, stunts, and the particular electricity of children recognizing beloved characters in person for the first time. Colonial Life Arena, a 12,000-seat downtown Columbia venue, provides the backdrop.
The timeline leaves little room for delay — winners announced Friday morning, show on Sunday — but that compression is the point. The exchange is clean: WLTX earns engagement and viewership, PAW Patrol Live! fills seats, and five families get an outing they didn't have to budget for. Everyone moves forward.
WLTX is giving away tickets to a show that will fill a theater with children in costumes and parents checking their phones. The station has partnered with PAW Patrol Live! to distribute five family packs—four tickets each—to the show "The Great Pirate Adventure," which arrives at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia on Sunday, October 30 at 11 a.m. It's the kind of prize that solves a specific problem: you have kids, they want to see the thing, tickets cost money. Someone else is paying.
The mechanics are straightforward. Entry opened on Saturday, October 22 at 12:01 a.m. on the WLTX Facebook page and will close Thursday, October 27 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time. During that five-day window, anyone can submit their name into the pool. Five winners will be selected and announced one per day on News19 This Morning, starting Monday, October 24 and running through Friday, October 28. Each winner gets a four-pack of mobile tickets, delivered through the Ticketmaster app to their email.
The show itself is a touring production—the kind that travels city to city, sets up in a mid-sized arena, and runs for a weekend or two before moving on. PAW Patrol, for those without young children in their lives, is a Nickelodeon animated series about a team of rescue dogs and their human handler. The live version brings the characters onto a stage with sets, stunts, and the particular energy of children recognizing something they know in person for the first time. The pirate adventure theme suggests a plot involving treasure, danger, and the dogs solving problems through teamwork and specialized skills—the show's formula.
Colonial Life Arena, located at 801 Lincoln Street in downtown Columbia, is a 12,000-seat multipurpose venue that hosts everything from college basketball to concerts to, now, a children's theatrical production. For a family of four, the tickets would otherwise come out of pocket. The sweepstakes eliminates that friction for five households.
The timing is tight but deliberate. Entry closes Thursday evening. Winners are announced Friday morning. The show happens Sunday. There's no lag, no waiting weeks to find out if you won. If your name is called on the News19 morning broadcast, you have roughly 36 hours to prepare—gather the kids, arrange transportation, maybe pack snacks. The tickets arrive digitally, which means no physical tickets to lose or forget. You show up with your phone.
This is a straightforward transaction between a local news station and its audience: WLTX gets engagement on its Facebook page and viewership on its morning show as people tune in hoping to hear their name. PAW Patrol Live! gets a full theater and word-of-mouth from families who might not have otherwise known the show was coming. The five winning families get an outing they didn't have to pay for. Everyone moves forward.
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a news station run a sweepstakes like this? What's in it for them?
Engagement. People go to their Facebook page to enter. They tune in to the morning show to see if they won. It's a small but real bump in attention during a specific week.
And PAW Patrol Live! gets what?
A full theater, probably. And families talking about it. If you win tickets and take your kids, you're more likely to tell people about the experience. That's marketing.
So it's mutually beneficial.
Exactly. The news station doesn't have to pay for the tickets—PAW Patrol donates them. The show gets guaranteed seats filled. The families get a free outing.
What about the people who enter and don't win?
They're out nothing. They spent a minute filling out a form on Facebook. But they also saw the promotion, which means they now know PAW Patrol Live! is in town. Some of them might buy tickets anyway.
Is there anything unusual about this sweepstakes?
Not really. It's straightforward—clear entry dates, clear announcement dates, clear delivery method. The only thing worth noting is how fast it moves. You enter Thursday night, find out Friday morning, go Sunday. There's no waiting.