Sooooo……
I’ve come to find out Kev and I live pretty darn close to each other (relatively speaking), so that’s cool! The live show traveled up I-75 to Knoxville last night, and I attended my very first ‘taping.’ It’s a real shame I didn’t choose the Chattanooga show and have a G-R meetup — that show was just about the same distance away as Knoxville’s from where I live. Maybe next time!
Anyway, they definitely do not change up much of anything between shows, at least when they are 24 hours apart. We had the same host, same announcer and same model — which makes sense, given the short drive of maybe an hour or two between venues. Nearly all of the prizes and setups were exactly the same with only a few minor exceptions.
The first item up for bids was the very same iMac. I knew it was either $1299 or $1399. I didn’t want to cause a contestant to go over, so I went with the former price and yelled it as loud as I could just as Jim was finishing up the description. This yielded a few weird looks from the older ladies sitting in front of us. I mean, come on, what do you expect? That’s what you’re supposed to do! I would have exacta’d, but oh well.
Our first PG is indeed Punch. Like Kev’s show, the first three items were easy enough to guess, but the Windex (32 ounces) was definitely a trap. Everyone in the audience was yelling “lower” while I was the only one (it felt like) saying “higher,” and fortunately that’s what the contestant chose to win her fourth punch. Interestingly enough, our contestant also chose 4,8 on the last punch, which ended up being $500 and won. The first three punches were $300, $500 (which I screamed for her to keep knowing the odds…the only one doing so lol) and $100. And, as we’ve learned, the $5,000 was in 4,10.
I honestly don’t even remember the second IUFB because of the events that would soon unfold. I think it was a set of Callaway golf clubs? I know that was one of the prizes at one point, anyway. Can’t remember the ARP — I just know I low-balled it at like $600 and was called out by the ladies in front of us (don’t worry about me, watch the show!).
The contestant comes up on stage and mentions she is with a couple of special people. She’s with her husband, but more importantly, as she put it, her mother-in-law was also with them.
As it turns out, her mother-in-law was a former contestant on Bill Cullen’s “The Price is Right” all the way back in 1964 when she was 19 years old (76 now)! A thunderous ovation came over the crowd for her to come up on stage, to which Mark allowed. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch her name, although it’s doubtful we would be able to track down her show anyway. She apparently won a $500 stereo of some sort, if I heard correctly (it was super loud in there). They talked back and forth for a good five minutes. Mark joked they could make an entire show of just them talking for an hour.
Mark allows the mother-in-law to remain on stage as Clock Game is rolled out, but she wasn’t allowed to help. It was super cool to see the updated version in person, and best I can tell, it looks pretty much identical to the real deal! The prizes were a toolset and a SimplySafe smart home package. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the exact prices, but I want to say they were somewhere in the neighborhood of $489 and $579, respectively…I think? Could be off there a bit, but they were somewhere in that range.
The contestant wins the toolset with about 13 seconds remaining. She goes super high on her opening bid for the security system at like $1200 or something, and I thought it was all over. But she clearly knew this game and was able to recover quickly, winning with barely one second left! What a finish! The bonus prize was the same 4-night Hawaii trip, which couldn’t be that cheap. This was easily the nicest prize won all night and almost akin to something you would see on the main show, minus a couple nights on the trip!
With so much excitement at this point, I totally stopped keeping track of certain small details, so either the third or fourth IUFB has escaped me completely. One of the two was a Nintendo Switch package, complete with a Switch (32 gb), four games (looked like Breath of the Wild and MarioKart were among them) and a case of some sort. I shouted $540, knowing the games and Switch for sure totaled that amount, but it somehow came out to $640. $100 case maybe? No clue. My bid would have won, though.
Our third game was Check-Out with the same exact prize package of a fridge and a year’s worth of Ben and Jerry’s (cash probably), as featured in Kev’s show. The setup was easy enough, but the last couple of items could easily trick someone — a 44 count box of fish sticks ($6.30ish) and an 8 ounce can of WD-40 (under $4…can’t recall the exact price) that was deceptively cheap. The contestant’s total came out to over $24, while the actual total was around $20-$21, resulting in first full loss of the evening.
Unlike the main show, we went straight to the fourth IUFB, followed up by Cliffhangers. Based on the prices Kev described, I believe we had the exact same setup, although our first prize might have differed. I’m pretty sure ours came out to $16 (dog clothes). Second prize was $30 and the third prize was $60. While 20-30-40 would have barely resulted in a win, the contestant was most definitely not aware of this rule, blurting out “$9” for the first item, much to the dismay of the audience (lot of LFATs there!). She then went $25 on the second item. A bit better this time, only losing five spaces. The third item was an absolute trap, yet she nailed it on the nose with $60! I was in shock, thinking she had gone way over. I still would have won myself going with the rule we all know, but she played even better *not* knowing the rule!
Three contestants are called up to spin the wheel. One of them, Wayne, is a retired Navy veteran, assisted on stage by his son Wayne Jr. This resulted in some great banter between Mark and the two Waynes. The first two spinners go over, providing Wayne with an automatic showcase spot and a free spin that netted him only a nickel.
The final IUFB is presented — a collection of Coach designer accessories. ARP $1050.
At this point, I already knew what was coming… Plinko! For a chance to win up to $2,500 (this should really be $5,000, but whatever). It’s unfortunate we weren’t playing the real deal, because the contestant could not have played much better, winning $1,500 with two center slot hits and two $250 hits (and a zero hit)…based on board positions, this would have been a $22,000 win on the main show! She placed the chip in the center every time, which I’m convinced (and I believe some analysis here has proven) gives you the best chance at hitting the center slot. It certainly panned out this time!
We then get to the showcases with one new contestant called up. My first name is Anthony. Jim calls “Anthony…….” but it’s a different last name… bummer. What are the chances? Heh.
The same exact showcase Kev described was offered — the only different being the flights originate from Knoxville. After thinking it over some, I wonder if they simply attach a cash value for the plane tickets on the live shows. Otherwise, ticket costs can be all over the place, depending on where the show is taking place. I’m not sure if Kev remembers the price of their showcase, but ours came out to $21,860.
All in all, it was a super fun night with a surprising amount of energy I wasn’t expecting! I’d say a good half of the audience was dressed up like they were attending a real taping, and the studio (auditorium) sounded exactly like what I think the actual show’s sounds like! Mark was a great host, and Jim gave me George Gray vibes. The night would only have been made better if I had actually been called on down!
Some interesting quirks I noticed:
* The Plinko intro sound was played before every game, including Punch. That was really weird.
* One of the pricing games (I want to say Check-Out) used classic prize cues, which was super cool! This was the only time I caught that happening, but being so into the moment, it’s totally possible I missed another instance of it happening.
* Nearly all of the clips they show during intermissions are of the Drew era, pre-Season 43. There were only a handful, and I do mean only a few, clips from Season 43, onward — none of which were from the last few seasons.
* Unless I missed it, I don’t believe Mark made mention of this being the CBS show’s 50th year. If he did, they certainly didn’t make a big deal out of it, which seems like a huge miss.
* The set is still stuck in Season 41/42 and is definitely showing its age to anyone familiar with the current set. That said, it does look super cool, especially when the lights are dimmed and all the lights are flashing!