Just for fun, here's a rundown of the second episode of mexico's "Atinale el Precio", which means somewhere in between "Bid the Price" and "Get the Price".
OPENING SPIEL: "Regresa el rey de los programas de concurso! Atinale el precio, con Chedraui! Aqui esta, celebrando 25 anos de carrera y regalando sonrisas a montones...marco Antonio Regil!"
For those not in the know, that means: "The king of game shows is back! The Price is Right, with Chedraui! Here he is-- celebrating a 25-year career giving away smiles to thousands, Marco Antonio Regil!"
OPENING DIFFERENCE: On this version, the show opens with an animation of many of the pricing game titles in neon next to the Big Wheel, which pans over to a movie theatre advertising the premiere of the new Atinale on the marquee. The announcer, Julio Cesar Palomera, then introduces the emcee, Marco Antonio Regil; Marco says a quick greeting and introduces the announcer, who then calls down the first four contestants. Julio Cesar has a different little calldown phrase for each person that he uses before he says his version of "Come on down"...things like "Fortune is calling", or "Get ready to win", or "It's your lucky day". Incidentally, on this show, "come on down" becomes a lengthy "Come down to contestants' row, and bid the price!"
I'm not going to bother with last names here; just be content knowing our first four are Alejandro, Laila, Mike*, and Karina.
*American names are much more popular in Mexico than I was aware of. There have been a few on Atinale so far.
"The first prize to bid on", or IUFB#1 is...:
1. Una batidora electrica (an electric mixer)
ALEJANDRO...$350
LAILA............$850
MIKE............$1050
KARINA........$1000 "cerrados" (one thousand even)
Precio de compra ("buying price"): $4223. Mike is our first ganador/winner!
Marco introduces the next game as an "Atinale el Precio Classic", El Cambalache. That means "The Swap", but we call it "Switch?". Mike's playing for:
Secadora electrica (Clothes dryer)...$7,700
Sillon reclinable (recliner).................$6,822
Mike decides to make a "cambalache", but no music is played with the switching action. In true Barker fashion, marco says: "I would love to start with a winner on today's show...does he win?"
SI, SENOR!! (Another frequently-heard phrase on Atinale) The dryer was $6,822, and the recliner was $7,700. Mike has done well.
We go straight to our next calldown; very few commercial breaks in this version, for reasons I'll explain later.
the next contestant is Maru, who in her own words, is very excited ("emocionada"). Marco asks if she's a housewife (still the usual occupation for female contestants), and she says ("It's a little weird, but...") she's taking a course in "thanatoasthetics"...or as Marco responds, "You make up corpses?!". Marco welcomes Maru and states that he hopes not to need her professional services anytime soon.
Next prize, behind the giant price tag:
2. "Una maquina planchadora" (steam press)
MARU.............$3700
KARINA..........$3800
ALEJANDRO...$2500
LAILA............$3000
Precio de comprar: $4206! Time for Karina!
The frankly gorgeous Karina gets to hear what Marco calls "the magic words": "CIEN MIL PESOS JUGANDO PLINKO!"...or "One hundred thousand pesos, playing Plinko!"
Marco asks Karina if she remembers Plinko, but she doesn't (How refreshingly honest!). Marco says Plinko is one of the most popular games, and notes that now the winning amounts have increased. The center slot is $20,000, which comes to around $1,600 American dollars. The zeros are in the usual spots, but other than that, everything's different. On the left, there's 1 thousand, 3 thousand, and 5 thousand pesos; and on the right, we have 10 thousand, 4 thousand, and 2 thousand pesos. No symmetry here, but better money amounts if you don't hit the big one...after all, if you miss $20,000 pesos you can still get $10,000...imagine if one of our $1,000 slots was replaced with a $5,000. Although with the exchange rate, all the lesser values are still under $1,000.
On a related note, Plinko is still being played with grocery items instead of small prizes, because they generally have 2-digit prices.
First item, chopsticks, marked $18...Karina guesses the 1 is right and wins.
Next, deodorizer spray, $52...Karina chooses the 2 is right.
Third is bird food, $29...she picks 2 and gets another chip.
Last, body wash, $47...Karina says 4 and is perfect!
A couple other Mexican Plinko notes...Marco also has a Plinko stick which he keeps at the ready throughout the game...it's several feet long. Also, this version has Plinko chip-dropping music, which I could do without. As for karina's winnings:
Chip 1: $5000
Chip 2: STUCK right between zero and $20,000. marco makes a big show of knocking it into $20,000...and it counts!!
Chip 3: $1000
Chip 4: $3000
Chip 5: $0
A total of $29,000 in pesos...maybe about $2500 American. That's a good haul for Atinale...about double an average pricing game package.
The new contestant is Paco and we go on with:
3. una maquina de chicle (a gumball machine, 900 ball capacity)
PACO............$3500 (he says "gum included")
ALEJANDRO...$3501
LAILA............$3900
MARU............"un peso". Marco comments, "She knows this game."
Precio: $4850; pretty expensive for an Atinale IUFB.
Laila wins, comes on stage and jumps into Marco's arms. She asks "Will you carry me?" and helps herself to Marco's microphone. The audience is delighted. Laila asks "How much do I weigh? Atinale..." Marco, uncomfortable, stammers, "Without going over?" Note that Laila is not particularly overweight, but marco still struggles to yhold her while he introduces her prize...
UN AUTO!!!
She's playing for a 4-door Chevrolet "Chevy"...that's all, just a "Chevy"...a car that's too small even for a name, and not sold in America, to my knowledge. It's smaller than even an Aveo, but appears to be considered a normal subcompact in Mexico.
The game is "TANQUE LLENO" ("Full tank"), which is a "juego nuevo"--new game--on Atinale: Gas Money. Marco says that in addition to the car, she can win enough money to keep her tank full for a long time...$35,000 pesos. A surprisingly huge amount- this is more than the top prize offered in their Punch-a-Bunch, but still only $3,000 US.
Possible prices are $112846, $115227, $119628, $123569, and $127495. In case you're not a math person, those prices are pretty close together. Laila asks, "If I faint, will you carry me again?" Marco claims "This is the best offer I've gotten since we started."
Going by the original Gas Money rules, Laila first freezes $119628 as her choice for the price of the "Chevy".
Then she picks $123569, and on the back it says...AUTO! Game over.
Marco asks Julio Cesar, "If I want to be a party of this party, what do I have to do?" Julio Cesar gives the snail mail and email addresses of the ticket dispensaries. On to La Ruleta, which is the Showcase Showdown.
Leila spins first: 25 + 65, 90 centavos total.
Mike: UN PESO!
KARINA: UN PESO!
We have "Empate en peso"; "a tie at a dollar" so we have a combination spinoff/ bonus spin. In Mexico the bonus payoff system is also different: $5,000 for the nickel, $15,000 for 15 cents, and for the peso....: UN AUTO! It's in fact a nicely equipped Chevy Camaro, which is prices higher in Mexico than it is here, coming to around $450,000 pesos, or US$37,000.
Mike's bonus spin lands him on $0.65,
but Karina beats him with $0.95. She'll spin again later to qualify for El gran paquete.
Part 2 coming momentarily.