Look. Mondays suck. At Games x Grapples, we'll try to make it a little better with a few awesome moments in game show history.
Moment of Awesome (n): A moment when a character does something for which they will be remembered forever, winning for them the eternal loyalty of fans. (as defined by TV Tropes)
This past week, Drew celebrated ten years as host of The Price is Right (though his actual 10th anniversary show isn't for another few weeks, but that's not important). A lot of people were skeptical of Drew replacing the venerable legend that is Bob Barker, but if they keep churning out moments like these on his watch, I have a feeling television's longest running game show will be in good hands for many years to come.
Friday was the latest in these big moments when all three contestants in one of the Showcase Showdowns spun $1.00, which netted them instead of the usual $1,000 each, $10,000 each. And if you think that's where the story ends, hahahahaha! You're so wrong.
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Why, yes, that is indeed two of the three following up that three-way $1.00 tie with $1.00 bonus spins, giving them $25,000 each. If you're scoring at home, that's $80,000 given away on the Big Wheel in less than five minutes. There have been entire episodes of The Price is Right that have given away less. Is it the most mental thing ever? Watch the full episode here (while you still can) and judge for yourself.
And when you're done, check out some more Moments of Awesome from The Price is Right.
In 2003, The Price is Right returned to primetime and introduced its "Million Dollar Spectacular" gimmick. This of course was during the era of "well, everyone has a million dollar game show, why not us?". Though sixteen episodes were filmed during the Barker era, ending in 2007, nobody won the top prize.
The gimmick was brought back in the wake of the writer's strike in, and in Drew's first year on the job, the million dollar wall was broken through. THREE TIMES. IN SEVEN WEEKS.
Adam Rose (not the wrestler) was the first to do it on February 11 (airing February 22), coming within $1,000 of the actual retail price of his showcase. Making it even more impressive: it was the more expensive showcase. That included a convertible. His total of $1,153,908 still stands as the show's all-time record, and a mark that will likely never be broken. In fact, he's still 10th all-time in winnings on an American game show. EVER.
They barely had time to clean up the confetti when during the next taping day (airing March 7), Michael Haynes nailed his trip and car showcase to within $500 (which ironically, would be the requirement for double showcase winners for the million dollar shows going forward--meaning he would have gotten it under both the old and new rules), giving him $1,127,062. You can also probably argue he was the show's only big winner, as everyone who played a pricing game on this episode--including Michael--lost (though his opposition in the Showcase did get $25,000 on the Big Wheel).
Taping on the same day Michael's million dollar triumph (but not airing until April 4), Cynthia Azevado had some NES Hard difficulty in her route to the million: she got the million dollar bonus pricing game, the Clock Game. She could win the usual bonus if she gets the prices of the two prizes before time ran out, but if she got them both within ten seconds, her bonus would jump to a million. She got the first prize on the money and would nail the second in eight seconds, giving her the million. Oh, and to cap off this moment of awesome, Cynthia would go on to win her showcase, giving her $1,089,017.
To date, she's the show's last million-dollar winner.
Introduced in September 2010, Pay the Rent challenges the player to stack six grocery items in a 1-2-2-1 order, with the caveat that the stack above must be worth more than the stack below. It sounds easy, but this game is played for $100,000. So... no. No it's not. It's ball-busting hard. In the 57 times the game has been played over seven seasons, it's only been won three times. Total. And it took until year three for anyone to win it. For the record: April 24, 2013. Ani Khojasarian. This is the woman that broke through.
The Price is Right's 37th season (second of the Drew Carey era) saw arguably the most controversial double showcase win in the show's history. On the November 27, 2008 episode (airing December 16), Terry Kniess did something that hadn't been done since the show's early days: an exact bid on a Showcase. However, since the double showcase rule wasn't instituted until 1974, this made Kniess the first--and to this day, only--person to win a double showcase on a perfect bid.
Like Michael Larsen on another CBS game show, Press Your Luck in 1984, Kniess was initially written off as a cheater (hell, even Drew thought so; he thought the show was gonna get shut down), but like Larsen before him, he studied the patterns and tendencies of the show, lucked out a little and created a perfect storm.
A little too perfect.