The daytime version of the Price is Right expanded to an hour this year. Suppose the syndicated format with Dennis James was to do the same. How would you do the Showcase Showdown in this case? Would you keep the Big Wheel? Tweak it a bit? Come up with something entirely different for the three pricing game players for each half?
Instead of ripping off Wheel of Fortune, they rip off Sale of the Century.
The three contestants play a sort of Silent Auction on a grocery item. (This was in the days when GPs were 29-99 cents.)
The three players stand behind podiums a la Sale of the Century. Dennis James raises the price about 5 cents each time. Like an auction, a player can buzz after an amount is read to "bid" that amount. Dennis keeps raising the price higher and higher (eventually going higher in smaller increments once players become more reluctant to bid)
Game ends in one of two ways:
1) If Dennis can't get any of the players to bid any higher, he reveals the ARP. Closest without going over wins.
2) If two players have bids over the ARP, a buzzer immediately goes off and the game immediately ends. The player who did not go over wins.
Winner gets a $500 bonus. If they freeze on the exact prize, they win $1,000.