using findcontrol for dropdownlist in a multiview

I have the following multiview set up in my aspx page:

<asp:MultiView id="MultiView1" runat="server" ActiveViewIndex="0">
    <asp:View id="View1" runat="server">
        <asp:Repeater id="view_program" runat="server"> 
        <ItemTemplate>
             blah blah blah
        </ItemTemplate>
        </asp:Repeater>
    </asp:View>
    <asp:View id="View2" r开发者_运维技巧unat="server">
        <asp:Repeater id="edit_program" runat="server"> 
        <ItemTemplate>
             <tr>
            <td class="add_border_bold" nowrap>Status</td>
            <td width="100%" class="add_border">
                <asp:DropDownList id="p_status" runat="server">
                </asp:DropDownList>
            </td>
            </tr>
        </ItemTemplate>
        </asp:Repeater>
    </asp:View>
</asp:MultiView> 

And what I am trying to do, is dynamically fill the dropdown in my page_load function, I have the following code written to do so based on how much I have been able to decipher on findcontrol

DropDownList p_status = View2.FindControl("p_status") as DropDownList;
if (p_status != null)
{
    p_status.Items.Add(new ListItem("Green", "Green"));
}

However, when I run the page, and click the button to load up View2 in the MultiView, the dropdown is still completely empty. Any ideas?

The Dropdown is in a repeater, so there can be more than one dropdown.

foreach (RepeaterItem item in edit_program.Items)
{
    var ddl = (DropDownList)item.FindControl("p_status");
    ddl.Items.Add(new ListItem("Green", "Green"));
}