The Price Is Right

The Price Is Right is a popular American game show based on contestants guessing the retail prices of featured prizes and other promotional products. The modern United States version, which premiered on September 4, 1972 and is hosted by Bob Barker, still airs today on CBS. The original 1956 version of the show was hosted by Bill Cullen.

TV Guide named The Price Is Right the "greatest game show of all time". Its longevity is such that it is one of two game-show franchises to be seen nationally in either first-run network or syndication airings in every decade from the 1950s onward; the other is To Tell the Truth. Price is known in pop culture for phrases such as "Come on down!" and "This showcase (or prize) can be yours if the price is right!"

The most recognized version of the show premiered September 4, 1972 on CBS and has been hosted by Bob Barker through its entire broadcast run. The show was first called The New Price is Right (and shortly afterward simply renamed The Price Is Right), and still airs today as the last network daytime game show that is still running.

From 1972 to 1975, The Price Is Right was a half-hour long. It featured three pricing games rather than six. There was no Showcase Showdown; the top 2 winners of the day participated in the Showcase. This was changed in 1975 to the hour-long version that continues today. (Nine weeks before the permanent change, CBS tried out an hour-long TPIR for one week, during which a different, sideways-spinning Big Wheel was used in the Showcase Showdowns.)

As of December 5, 2005, contestants have won all six pricing games on a single episode 72 times. On the other hand, as of March 28, 2006, there have been 72 times where all six pricing games on a single episode were lost. (It should be noted, though, that a "winless show" is harder to define than a "perfect show," and that the stats given for the former are less likely to be accurate.) Of particular note for contestant futility was the February 23, 2006 episode, where not only were all six pricing games lost, but there was a double overbid in the Showcase, as well. Winnings-wise, it was one of the least successful episodes in the show's history, with only eight prizes being given away the entire hour, including the six Items up for Bids and a tortilla maker and a carousel horse in Master Key; it was also the first episode in more than a decade to give away less then $10,000, only giving away $8,739 in prizes.

Other short-lived versions of the show have aired as well. A weekly syndicated version of the show aired from 1972 through 1980. This show was hosted by Dennis James from 1972 to 1977, then Bob Barker from 1977 to 1980. James also subbed for Barker on three daytime shows around Christmas of 1974.

Two daily syndicated versions were attempted: in 1985 with host Tom Kennedy (The Nighttime Price Is Right), and in 1994 with host Doug Davidson (The New Price Is Right). Both were quickly cancelled—Kennedy's after a year, Davidson's after five months.

The Kennedy version was played exactly the same way as the first three seasons and the original syndicated run, with the two highest winners advancing to the Showcase.

Some of the Davidson version's concepts became part of European versions starting with Bruce Forsyth's British version in 1995.

The Kennedy version experimented with a $500 perfect bid bonus, which the daytime show adopted in 1998, and the Davidson version's doors were used in the daytime version starting in September 1996, albeit repainted with the patterns from the daytime doors.

The Showcase Showdown

Main article: Showcase Showdown (The Price Is Right)

Bob and the Big Wheel
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Bob and the Big Wheel

Six pricing games are played per show. After the third and sixth pricing games, there is a "Showcase Showdown," so that one of three finalists per Showdown can be determined for the Showcase from among those who won their way out of Contestants' Row.

The contestants (in ascending order of winnings so far) spin a wheel with 20 uniquely marked sections. Each section is marked with a multiple of 5¢; the lowest value on the wheel is 5¢, the highest $1.00. After the first spin, the contestant has a chance to stay or spin again. The contestant's score is the sum of the two spins (or one spin if he decides to stay). The goal is to have the highest score without going over $1. Any contestant who goes over $1 is immediately eliminated. If the first two contestants both go over $1 in their two spins, the third contestant wins by default and is given one spin so that he can try to get a dollar.

The beeping sounds heard while the Big Wheel is spinning are triggered by sensors on the side of the wheel. Each space has a white section and a black section on its left side; every time one of the white sections moves in front of the sensor, the beep is activated.

If a contestant gets a dollar on the wheel in one spin or a combination of two spins, he wins a bonus of $1,000 and is granted a bonus spin at the end of the Showdown. In a bonus spin, the wheel is reset to 5 cents (done so because the rule is the wheel must go all the way around at least once to count, and a bonus spin starting on $1 could theoretically land on 5 cents, voiding the apparent $5000 bonus), and the contestant is given one spin. If the wheel lands on a green section – 5 or 15, the spaces before and after the dollar, respectively—in that spin, he wins $5,000 more; if it stops on the dollar, he wins $10,000 more. If the wheel doesn't go all the way around, the contestant does not get another try.

There is a rule that the wheel must make one full rotation each time it is spun, to make it hard to aim for a specific square of the wheel. The audience usually "lightly admonishes" the contestant if he or she fails at this, and the player is given another chance. In the case of senior citizens and other contestants who may be too weak to spin the wheel fully, Barker usually helps spin the wheel for them.

If two (or very rarely all three) contestants are tied, there is a spin-off consisting of one spin only each. The $1,000 bonus and subsequent bonus spin can still be earned in a spin-off. If two (or all three) contestants tie with $1, there is a spin that is simultaneously a bonus spin and spin-off. If any contestants are still tied after this "bonus spin-off", another spin-off is done, but with no bonuses offered. (Such a situation has occured numerous times, including one instance requiring a FOURTH spin-off to finally break the tie.)

A contestant cannot win more than one $1,000 bonus, nor can they win more than $11,000 on the wheel. Until late 1978, however, there was no "bonus spin", and contestants simply won a $1,000 bonus every time they spun $1 (so if two people tied at $1 and had a spin-off, they could win another $1,000 bonus by spinning $1 again).
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The Showcase

The two winners of the Showcase Showdowns in each episode make it to the Showcase. The Showcase usually involves several prizes connected by a common theme or a story; they tend to be worth between $12,000 and $40,000, although they occasionally exceed $55,000, and primetime specials in recent years have gone over $100,000. The goal, as in Contestants' Row, is to be the closest without going over. One showcase is shown, and the contestant with greatest winnings so far has the option to "bid or pass". After the bid is placed, the 2nd showcase is shown and bid upon by the remaining contestant.

The contestant nearest to the price of his own showcase without going over wins his showcase. If both contestants go over, neither player wins his showcase. Beginning in the spring of 1974, if the winner is less than $100 away from (Seasons 2-26) or within $250 of (Season 27 onward) the price of his own showcase, he wins both showcases. If the two contestants are exactly the same distance from the actual prices (in other words, if there is a tie) without going over, each wins his own showcase; this has happened exactly once in the show's history. If there is a tie where the differences are within the Double Showcase range, both contestants win both showcases; this has never happened.

Unlike Contestants' Row, there is no cash bonus for a perfect bid in the Showcase. However, there has been exactly one person to have a perfect bid in the Showcase (the eggcrate display on the player's Showcase podium read "00000"). This is believed to have occurred on the '70s nighttime run, where the Double Showcase rule was never added; as such, the contestant in question won only his own showcase.

As with Contestants' Row, contestants have at times used the strategy of bidding $1 (or any other extremely low amount) if they think the other contestant has gone over. On the fourth daytime episode, such a strategy led to one contestant winning her showcase without Bob revealing its actual retail price.[2]

In primetime, beginning with the fourth Million Dollar Spectacular, if no one earned a bonus spin in either Showcase Showdown, the Showcase winner automatically earns a spin for $1,000,000; no money is awarded for hitting a green section in this spin. If there is a double overbid in the Showcase under these circumstances, a random person is called out of the audience to spin for the million; this person does not lose his eligibility to be called as a regular contestant on a future episode.

However, during the course of the tapings of the Season 33 Million Dollar Spectaculars, the double overbid rule was changed. Under those circumstances, the spin is now awarded to the Showcase participant who made the smaller overbid. This rule was in place on MDS 15; it isn't known for certain which rule was used for 13 and 14.

In the 1970s, some of the second showcases were introduced very elaborately, and a recorded voice-over is sometimes obvious, such as when Johnny Olson appeared as "Kook Skywalker" in a "Star Wars"-themed showcase.

The program is usually produced in exactly one hour, with carefully timed commercial breaks, even though it is taped well in advance (for example, the morning taping of November 16, 1983, was aired on January 10, 1984—a poster tells the audience when the show will be broadcast, so they can send postcards to a friend). As with many other shows that start production in the summer, the lead time varies during the season. For example, while some shows airing in October 2005 had been taped the previous July, the gap closed enough so that episodes taped in the second week of November 2005 aired just before Christmas.

The audience is entertained for several minutes before taping begins; Johnny Olson once joked that his clothes were from "pen-nayy... J.C. Pen-nayy". After the taping session, there is a drawing for a door prize.