The Price is Right - 6/12/11 Episode

I apologize I haven't blogged the last two episodes of The Price is Right - a few things have come up recently. Going forward, I'll still be doing my best to blog about every episode, but in occasional cases that may not be possible.

Alright, on to today's show. It was a day for both the young and the old. Let's start with the introduction of Drew Carey, which included Connor, the son of the host's ex-fiancee:

 

(According to those who report on such matters, Carey's motivation for his recent weight loss was to keep up with Connor as he got older, and that he was planning to remain a part of Connor's life after the couple split in January.)

And then we had Margaret playing "Clock Game" for a trip to St. Thomas:

Ohhhh booooy

To recap, after being told the price of the first item is lower than $900, Margaret proceeds to spend 15 seconds - that's half the time allotted for the game - and 17 (I think) guesses that are higher than $900. I half expected Drew to throw in a "lower than $900" reminder somewhere in there, as Margaret was clearly lost, but I guess that's against the rules of hosting.

Then, she guesses $850, goes back to $800 again, then goes back to $850 again. Concentrate!

Pricing game struggles
Margaret was the last contestant in an 0-for-6 clanger of a day in pricing games.

The Price is Right - 6/7/12 Episode

Today's going to be more of a "quick hit" post, but here's a few things that jumped out at me from today's episode:

I thought the first Showcase that David bid on was sneakily expensive. For trips to Palm Springs and Ireland, and a Volkswagen Beetle, David bid $27,000. Playing along at home, I went $27,100.

The actual price? $38,297. Drew Carey gave it the "What?" as he read it out, meaning even he thought it was incredibly expensive. Admittedly, I undervalued the Beetle (I based my guess on $17K for the car, $6K for Ireland and $4K for Palm Springs, which doesn't require airfare from L.A.). But, even high-balling the price of the Beetle at $25K, that leaves over $13,000 for the two trips. Apparently, I missed something in the details.

So did David, but it didn't matter after Selena went over on her sneakers/home gym/trip to Dominica package (a $22,300 bid on a $20,344 prize, pretty low by The Price is Right standards).

Don't be that guy...
Who rubs it in after he bids $1 over somebody...

...and then put on a sour face when someone else wins.

Scott's bid was a good one, but enough of America already thinks you're a big enough douche as it is when you bid $1 over somebody. Don't give them more ammo.

A rare opportunity
Today's playing of "Now or Then" was for a car, something I hadn't seen since I started re-watching the show.

The Price is Right - 4/30/12 Episode

Ugh.

That pretty much sums today's episode of The Price is Right, and that even takes into account a $1 spin on the wheel and an exact bid on bidders' row.

That was more than offset, however, by contestants' 0-for-6 performance in the pricing games. The first was the toughest one to take, as Kevin very nearly became the first to ever win $100,000 on "Pay the Rent."

Unfortunately, he took home $0.

Here's the set-up:

You get six grocery items, and each item or combination of items has to cost more than what you put on the "floor" below it. So, the items you put on the first floor (that blue "couch" and green "stove" you see in the photo above) have to cost more than what you put in the red mailbox there at the bottom. And so on and so forth, with the most expensive item up top.

What made today's defeat so heartbreaking was that Kevin played it correctly, and I genuinely thought he had it. What most contestants do is place the obvious least expensive item in the mailbox at the bottom, placing more expensive items above and leaving no chance of the top item being more than the floor below it. Most of these contestants take home the $5,000 or $10,000 - you can stop at any time, or risk what you've won already to move on to the next level - so that's not exactly a bad haul.

Kevin put the Twinkies (or "snack cakes" as Drew Carey and George Gray were contractually obligated to call them) on the second level, which was the right move.

Unfortunately, it didn't pay off.

I really enjoyed Drew's buildup, and Rachel looked legitimately excited about the prospect of a $100K winner. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Nor was Erin's trip to Rome on this brutal "Range Game" loss:

Would Bob Barker have asked how to say "That sucks" in Italian?

The Price is Right - 4/25/12 Episode

As regular readers of The Price is Right Files are aware, a good amount of my blog focuses on the stupid decisions of contestants. Sometimes, finding such decisions can be difficult. Other days, it can be easy.

There are also days like today, where we had Kenneth.

Kenneth was boatload of fail today. We'll start with his bid during the third round of bidders' row. The picture says it all.

Tina (to Kenneth's left) was so dumbfounded with her subsequent victory, she tripped on stage:

Back to Kenneth. He was last to bid in the next round, and went a full $400 over the highest bidder. The Price is Right sometimes rewards such imbecility, and today was one of those days. Kenneth got up on stage, and got a chance to play for four prizes on "Take Two."

Here's the game: you're given a money value (today it was $6,893), and you have to pick the two prizes that add up to that value. If you miss, you get a second chance, which gives you the added advantage of having seen the price of two of the prizes.

Today's prizes: two pairs of women's shoes and a purse from Valentino, a washer/dryer, a pool table and a desktop computer. Kenneth went with the shoes/purse, and... the computer!

Really, Kenneth? Even if you highball the price of the shoes and purse - say, $3,000 - that leaves almost $4,000 for a desktop computer. The foolishness here is twofold. One, you think a desktop computer is worth almost $4,000. Two, more importantly, you still have multiple reasonably possible combinations to guess from. If, say, the shoes/purse and pool table (which would've been my first choice) don't work out, you pretty much know it's the pool table (assuming it's as expensive as you think it is) and the washer/dryer.

So, Kenneth gets his second chance, where we find out that he - and pretty much the whole studio audience - can't do fairly basic math:

Seriously, almost everyone thought he won - including him.

Let's just move on.

Pricing game WIN
We did have some success on The Price is Right today, including our first pricing game car win in what seemed like ages.