The Price is Right - 5/30/12 Episode

Today's episode of The Price is Right witnessed what has been a rarity this season: two car games, two wins.

I'll start with the more impressive of the two, which came in the sixth and final pricing game: Jason's victory in "One Away." According to Price is Right Recaps, this is only the second win in 15 tries on this game this season.

This game was my favorite as a kid, and I still enjoy it now. The premise is simple enough: you're given a wrong price of a car, and you have to guess whether each digit in the real price is one higher or one lower. So, a car that really costs $17,493, for example, could be presented as $26,582. You have two rounds to do it. At the end of the first round, you're told (by begging the "Mighty Sound Effects Lady") how many numbers you have right, but not which ones.

Playing for a Ford Fiesta today, Jason was presented with $27,532 and went "lower" with the first four digits, and higher with the fifth.

The Mighty Sound Effects Lady told Jason he had four numbers right. And then...

The Price is Right - 5/9/12 Episode

Having hosted hundreds of episodes of The Price is Right, Drew Carey is entitled to get a little confused every now and then.

Today was one of those days, as in the first round on bidders' row, he had a tough time discerning who had won. Apparently, the contestants couldn't quite figure it out, either.

Observe Pamela's and Jermaine's Pavlovian response when Drew points to them, even though they had overbid.

So Jeffrey gets on stage with the opportunity to win a car in "Let 'Em Roll." The game looks like this:

You get one free roll of the dice, with the chance to win two more by guessing the prices of a few grocery items. Jeffrey went 1-for-2, so he had two rolls. Each of the five die have three car symbols and three cash values (one each of $1,500, $1,000 and $500). After your first roll, you can keep the cash that comes up (assuming you didn't roll five cars) or take the die that didn't come up car and try again. If you don't have five cars after your last roll, you get whatever cash you got on that last roll.

Here's the result of Jeffrey's first roll:

Again, here's why I'd be a boring game show contestant: I'd pocket the $3,500 and call it a day. Maybe if the odds of rolling three cars were a little better than the 8-to-1 that it is here, I'd consider taking the risk. But $3,500 is a pretty good cash haul from this game.

Jeffrey, naturally, went for the car. He didn't get it, and took home $2,000 instead.

Drama and intrigue
Today, we saw why "Any Number" is the best game on The Price is Right.

The Price is Right - 4/16/12 Episode

Today was a rough day on stage for The Price is Right contestants, who went 0-for-6 in the pricing games.

There were some tough games today: 1/2 Off, Let 'Em Roll and The Race Game among them.

Contestants didn't exactly cover themselves in glory, though. We'll start in Lucky Seven, where Jennifer, after being given the '1' to start, went with '6' as the second number. Almost as a rule, if the first number is a '1' you have to go with '8' next. The Price is Right just doesn't do $16K cars. Go with the '8' and, at worst, you're giving Drew just $1, giving you $6 for the next three digits.

Losing those $2 right off the bat is a killer. Jennifer needed to get the last number right as a result. She didn't.

Then we have McKell on The Race Game. Admittedly, this is a tough game, given that you have to get the right price for four items, and you're racing against the clock to do it.

With the clock running against you, why on Earth are you looking back to the crowd?

Pointless celebrity appearances
Celebrity appearances on The Price is Right generally bring nothing to the show as is, but if you're going to do it, at least bring on somebody with stage presence. JR Martinez dancing with Gwendolyn two weeks ago was kinda cool. Curtis Stone last week at least had some enthusiasm.

Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin brought nothing to the table today. Visibly nervous on stage, she was brought out three separate times, including the Showcase (during which you could very clearly see her eyes moving across the teleprompter).

Heck, I'd rather have seen Daniel Goddard.