Technically, it wasn't, as neither contestant who played for a car actually won a car. But they showed some common sense (a rare concept on this show) and took home pretty good prizes, so I'm giving them the 'W.'
In today's second pricing game, we had Morningstar (yes, really) playing for a truck in "Temptation." One by one, the models trot out four prizes (usually, one of them is cash)...
...and you have to guess which of those numbers is the next digit in the car. You're given the first digit in the car price (in today's case, a '2'), so here, Morningstar has to guess whether the next digit is a '3' or a '4.' And so on and so forth. In addition to the $3,434 in cash, today's other prizes were a portable satellite receiver for $776, a 32-inch HD television for $499, and a trio of watches for $595. So, each digit is a toss-up.
The game is called "Temptation" because you can just keep the prizes without doing a thing, or risk it all on the premise that you guess all right digits in the car. If you are right, you get the car and the prizes. If you go for it and lose, you lose everything.
To me, it's an easy decision: take the prizes. Today, they were worth over $5,000 total. Why risk that on the 16-to-1 odds that you have the right price of the car? And yet, most contestants go for it. They almost always lose.
Morningstar, however, took the prizes. And it's a good thing she did.
In today's fifth game, Dennis was playing "Gas Money" for a shot at a Chrysler 200 LX. In this game, you're given five possible prices for the car. One is correct, and the other four have money values of $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 and $4,000. To win the car, you have to pick the car price last, accumulating your "gas money" along the way. You can stop and just pocket the cash at any time, but if you keep going and pick the car price before you're supposed to, you lose everything. The game is difficult because the five prices are all within about $1,000 of the one above and/or below it.
Dennis did well compared to most contestants by getting up to $7,000 (with the $1K, $2K and $4K cards), leaving him with a 50-50 shot at the car. He decided to take the money and run.
Drew Carey asked Dennis which of the options he would've taken had he gone for it, and we found out he would have been wrong. Wise choice to stop, then.
The other wins were more straightforward, starting with Jason winning an all-inclusive trip to Curacao in "Flip-Flop." They may as well have just given him the prize, with this setup:
That's obviously a $5K trip. Flopping the '86' to a '68' was the only option, and Jason took it.
Travis earned both the bonus X's in "Secret X," and since they apparently never put the 'X' on the bottom, he won.
Playing for a retro-designed fridge and an eco-friendly washer/dryer, Melanie elected not to make the models work in "Switch." It paid off.
And there was much rejoicing.
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| "Yayyyy..." |
To cap it off, Maria stood to win groceries and maid service for a year in "Hi-Lo." To win the game, you have to pick the three most expensive out of the six grocery items on display.
For the unseasoned shopper (like myself), today wasn't the easiest of setups. The 4-pack of batteries is obviously in the "Hi" category, while the 2-pack of cupcakes was certainly in the "Lo." The other four: frozen waffles, Cool Whip, oregano and lemonade mix. I honestly have no idea what Cool Whip costs, and oregano doesn't strike me as an expensive herb.
Maria, without hesitation, went right for the oregano and lemonade mix. As it turned out, it wasn't even close: the lemonade mix was the least expensive of the "Hi" items at $3.89, and the closest one to it among the "Lo" groceries was the Cool Whip at $2.29.
Maria was our sixth winner today, and there was much rejoicing.
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| "Yayyyy..." |
Wheel of evil
In the second go at the wheel, Dennis got a nickel on his first spin. He went again, with the dollar the only thing that would put him over.
Dennis spun the dollar.
Melanie followed with 20 cents in her first spin, meaning she had only a 20 percent chance of going over with her second spin.
Melanie got an 85 and went over. The odds of she and Dennis both going over based on those opening spins were 100-to-1.
Maria, the winner by default, got a 15 with her first spin, and thankfully did not have to go again.
Horrendous bidding of the week
The fourth prize up for bids on The Price is Right today was the "Look of the Week," expertly modeled by Rachel.
As George Gray told us, the Look included the silk "shirt dress," leather satchel, jewelry and Valentino pump$. Apparently, everyone stopped listening after the dress.
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Here's looking at you
Travis made it on stage despite bidding $250 for a 17-piece set of power tools. While he was giving this ridiculous bid, though, take a look at the girl's reaction behind him to the right. She knew it was crap.
And, finally...
When Morningstar practically mauled Drew after getting on stage...
...I couldn't help but think back to this infamous clip from the Bob Barker era (you can skip ahead to the 7-minute mark for the specific part I'm talking about, but the whole thing has a lot of good stuff going on):
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