List of The Price Is Right pricing games
Pricing games are featured on the current version of the American game show The Price Is Right. The contestant from Contestants' Row who bids closest to the price of a prize without going over wins the prize and has the chance to win additional prizes or cash in an onstage game. After the pricing game ends, a new contestant is selected for Contestants' Row and the process is repeated. Six pricing games are played on each hour-long episode. Prior to expanding to one hour in length, three games per episode were played during the half-hour format. With the exception of a single game from early in the show's history, only one contestant at a time is involved in a pricing game.
A total of 113 pricing games have been played on the show, 78 of which are in the current rotation. On a typical hour-long episode, two games—one in each half of the show—will be played for a car, at most one game will be played for a cash prize and the other games will offer merchandise or trips. Usually, one of the six games will involve grocery products, while another will involve smaller prizes that can be used to win a larger prize package.
Some rules of pricing games have been modified over the years due to the effects of inflation. On the 1994 syndicated version hosted by Doug Davidson, the rules of several games were modified. Notably, the grocery products used in some games on the daytime version were replaced by small merchandise prizes, generally valued less than $100. Other special series—including The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular that aired in 2008, and special weeks such as Big Money Week and Dream Car Week—also [|featured temporary rule changes] to some pricing games. The names of some games are occasionally changed for episodes with specific themes, such as Earth Day, Halloween, and College Day.
Active games
A
Any Number
A gameboard contains spaces representing five digits in the price of a car, three digits in the price of a smaller prize, and three digits representing an amount of money in a piggy bank. The first digit in the price of the car is revealed at the beginning of the game. The digits 0 through 9 each appear once in the remaining ten spaces, including a duplicate of the first digit in the price of the car. The contestant calls out digits one at a time, revealing them in the prices of the prizes on the gameboard, and wins the first prize whose price is completely revealed.B
Back to '7X
Three small prizes that first appeared on the show 50 years ago are displayed on a turntable housed inside a stylized vintage television set. The contestant has to guess the price of each individual item from that year. The contestant turns a knob on the television to dial in their guess for each price, using a $50 range for the first two prizes and a $100 range for the third. The contestant wins a large prize if the total difference of their guesses and the actual prices of the items does not exceed $50.The game debuted under the name Back to '72 during the show's 50th season, and was originally supposed to be played only through the end of 2022. It returned in January 2023 as Back to '73 and has since been added to the current pricing game lineup, with the name being updated each year.
Balance Game
A prop bag of money representing the last three digits in the price of a prize is placed on one side of a balance scale. The contestant is then shown three more bags, each representing a different value in multiples of $1,000, and must choose two of them to place on that same side so that the total of all three bags equals their guess at the correct price. A bag representing the full price is then placed on the other side of the scale. The contestant wins the prize if the two sides balance.Bargain Game
Two prizes are shown, each displaying a bargain price lower than its actual retail price. The contestant wins both prizes by choosing the one that has been marked down farther from retail.The game was known as Barker's Bargain Bar, named for previous host Bob Barker, until it was removed from rotation on December 5, 2008. The game returned on April 10, 2012 after a hiatus and was renamed Bargain Game, with a new set.
Bonkers
A gameboard displays an incorrect four-digit price for a prize and contains eight spaces: one space above and one space below each digit. The contestant is given four markers to place on the board and has 30 seconds to determine whether each correct digit in the price of the prize is higher or lower than the digit displayed, placing a marker above or below the incorrect digit to denote their choice. The contestant then presses a button. The contestant wins the prize if the guessed pattern is correct. If the guess is incorrect, a buzzer sounds and the contestant must try again, not knowing how many digits are wrong or which ones. Changes can be made until the contestant finds the right pattern or until time has expired.Bonus Game
The contestant is asked whether each of four small prizes is priced higher or lower than the incorrect price given. Each prize corresponds to one of four windows on a gameboard, one of which conceals the word "Bonus", and each correct guess wins the small prize and control of the window. The contestant wins a large bonus prize by controlling the window containing the word "Bonus".Bullseye
Five grocery items are shown, and the contestant is asked to purchase a quantity of a single item such that the total price is between $10 and $12. The contestant may make three attempts, each with a different item, and immediately wins the game by succeeding on any one attempt. If the total for an item is between $2 and $9.99, the host places a marker on a target-shaped gameboard to indicate it. If the total is less than $2 or over $12, no marker is placed.One item has a bullseye hidden behind its price tag. If the contestant fails to reach the $10–$12 range on all three attempts, the contestant can still win if the hidden bullseye is behind the price tag of an item for which the contestant earned a marker on the target.
Originally, the target featured a $5 to $10 range, with $9 to $10 as the bullseye range. Shortly thereafter, the target became $1 to $6, with a $5 to $6 bullseye range.
C
Card Game
The contestant uses playing cards from a standard deck to bid on a car. Before playing the game, the contestant draws a card from another deck to determine how close their bid must be to the actual price, without going over, in order to win. The contestant's bid starts at the set price and increases as the contestant draws cards: face cards add $1,000 and numbered cards add their face value multiplied by $100. Aces are wild and can either be played immediately or held aside. When the contestant chooses to stop drawing cards, the price of the car is revealed. The contestant wins the car if the bid is within the target range without going over.In 1983, a starting bid of $2,000 was introduced to speed up the game. Inflation has caused that starting value to rise several times: to $2,000 in 1983; $8,000 in 1993; $10,000 in 2001; $12,000 in 2005; and $15,000 in 2008. Since 2014, the game uses a floating starting bid based on the value of the prize. The current starting bid is set between $15,000-$60,000.
Originally, aces could be made any value up to $1,000. Since 1983, an ace can be made any positive value, allowing the contestant to set a final bid at any number above the current total.
The special deck has also changed several times. When the game debuted, the deck consisted of nine cards with one each of values from $200 to $1,000 in $100 increments. In 1983, when the game became The New Card Game, the deck consisted of twelve cards with two each of values from $500 to $1,000 in $100 increments. In 1993, the deck changed again to a deck of twelve cards with three each of values from $500 to $2,000 in $500 increments. In 2005, the deck changed to seven cards, with two each of $1,000, $2,000, and $3,000 values, and one $5,000 card.
Check Game
The contestant is shown a prize and asked to write an amount on an oversized blank check made out in their name. The value of the prize is then added to the amount written on the check. The contestant wins both the prize and the cash amount of the check if the total falls between $8,000 and $9,000. If the contestant loses the game, the check is voided with a rubber stamp.The game was originally titled Blank Check and had a winning range of $3,000 to $3,500. It was renamed "Check Game" in 1986 and the range fell between $5,000 and $6,000 by 1989 and between $7,000 and $8,000 by 2008. The current range of between $8,000 and $9,000 went into effect in 2019.
Check-Out
The contestant is asked to individually price five grocery items. After all five guesses are tallied, the total of the contestant's guesses is revealed, then the actual prices of the items are revealed. The contestant wins a bonus prize if their cumulative total is within $2.00 of the actual total price of the five grocery items.When the game began, the range was 50 cents, then raised to $1 in April 1996, before being raised to the current $2 range in October 2003.
Cliff Hangers
The contestant faces a gameboard consisting of a mountain slope divided into 25 steps, with a figure of a climber at its base and a cliff at the top. The contestant must guess the retail prices of three small prizes, one at a time. The climber moves one step up the slope for every dollar the contestant is off, high or low, and the correct price is not revealed until after the climber has either stopped or fallen off the cliff. The contestant wins the three small prizes and a larger prize if the total of the contestant's errors on all three guesses is no more than $25. If the climber falls off the cliff, the game ends and the contestant wins only the small prizes priced before exceeding $25.Officially, the mountain climber has no name, although several hosts have used their own names for him. Doug Davidson referred to the climber on The New Price Is Right as "Hans Gudegast", which is the birth name of his Young and the Restless co-star Eric Braeden. Drew Carey has referred to him as Hans, Yodel Man and most frequently, Yodely Guy. Carey has also referred to this game as "the Yodely Guy game" due to the yodeling song accompanying the climber, "On the Franches Mountain" by Jura Orchestra. At The Price Is Right Live!, he is often referred to as Johann. Dennis James referred to the climber as Fritz. On an episode which taped in 1976, after the climber fell off the cliff, James commented, "There goes Fritz!", unaware that Janice Pennington's then-husband, Fritz Stammberger, had recently disappeared in what had been reported to be a mountain climbing accident at the time. James' offhand comment upset Pennington so much that she remained backstage crying for the rest of the episode.