I thought it was a total duck move that the fellow playing the blank check game initially wrote down $1,800 but whoever was advising him in the audience told him to up it so he changed it to 2800 and lost. His original 1800 would have won. Fortunately for him he acquitted himself well in the showcase showdown and then the Showcase so I imagine bombing the blank check game didn't matter so much.

I also noticed the two and five on the fingers which the player misinterpreted as 25 instead of 7. Just goes to show that you can't fix stupid.

Charlene is definitely getting ripped off when she buys cold medicine.

I noticed the guy she was looking at in the audience was signing holding up a ‘2’ and a ‘5’ with his hands, sure he meant ‘$7’ but the contestant read it as ‘$25’.

If the contestant bids within the given parameters on an item, then they win that item.

When I was there, if the contestant won the the $10-range and/or $100-range prizes, then they received the physical prize(s). If they won the grocery item, then they received cash in the amount of the grocery item (it's easier to write a check for $2.89 than to figure out how to ship a package of cheese to the winner's home).

Do contestants get a check for the price of the GP in other games as well or just Rat Race?

Let's be honest, Peter Marshall himself would not have made this afterthough format work. And really, at least Bauman was likeable and acted like he wanted to be there. As I said before, maybe Gene the veteran could have been little more of a mentor to Jon instead of just bashing him because Bauman was a bright guy and he I think he would have tried to improve himself.

Can i also say that Gene, bless his heart, looked downright pained to be there?

Thank you for fixing! Or it was SMF itself, finally!