Time for me to speak up, based on what I've read.....
Personally, I think this is just the TPIR equivalent of Michael Larson's $110K+ haul on PYL. It may look like there was some cheating, but in all, it's legal. Larson knew the board had a pattern to it, so he used that to his advantage and...well, you know. Ted knew the prices of those prizes, and passed them to Terry. I don't think that would've been cheating unless Terry, Ted, or someone close to either of them had a physical list, access to the Internet, etc. It also helps when the prizes in the SC are commonly seen on the show. I know the VocoPro's been on a few times. Same with the pool table. And the Hi-Lo trailer is definitely a common sight in the SC's. Any Joe Plinko could see those prizes enough times to know what they cost [just as many of us know the V8 is always $3.15].
I can only think of how things could've been if message boards existed in 1984----people would no doubt have accused Michael Larson of cheating. Heck, I can only think that what happened behind the scenes in that case may have been similar to what happened here---a stopdown, with the producers contemplating, "is this guy cheating!?". Yes, PYL and Price are 2 different shows. But what I've read in this thread has me believing that this is, as with Larson, a case of someone legitimately knowing something, and using it to their---or in this case, another contestant's---advantage. Just that the producers wanted to make sure things were kosher. And to find out if things are kosher, unfortunately, does require a bit of paranoia on the staff's part.
Otherwise, yes---I do think Drew could've handled it better. If he smelled a rat, he shouldn't have let it show on air.
