Contestants' Row
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Contestants' Row is the contestant game play area on the television game show The Price Is Right.
During the show open, the announcer calls down the first four contestants, who line up in "Contestants' Row", where they will bid on the price of a prize, like a television, bicycle, or sofa, among others.
After the prize is described, the four contestants bid on the prize. Whoever bids closest to the prize's actual retail price without going over wins the prize and comes on stage to play a pricing game. If all four contestants overbid, a buzzer sounds, the bids are erased and the contestants are instructed to re-bid lower than the lowest previous bid.
From approximately 1977 through late 1998, if a contestant bid exactly right, a clanging bell sounds, and he/she won a cash bonus of $100, awarded to him onstage by the host. The 1985 syndicated version upped the perfect bid bonus to $500, the daytime regular series matched that number in 1998, and on the Million Dollar Spectaculars the bonus is $1,000.
Two well-known bidding strategies include bidding $1 over the highest bid so far (e.g., $501 if the highest bid is $500) or bidding only $1 if all the bids seem too high. These strategies typically work best for the fourth and final bidder.
After the first through fifth pricing games, new contestants must fill the vacant spot without shuffling (rearranging). Bidding proceeds left-to-right from the new contestant. One interesting aspect of the show's opening is that no one from show's staff regulates the order in which the first four contestants situate themselves in Contestants' Row. The opening bid always starts with the far left bidder. The contestants are usually too excited to notice their spot, but the contestant who ends up in the far right spot does have a slight advantage in bidding.
The contestants who do not make it on stage receive two consolation prizes (originally three from 1975 to 2000), which are announced before the second Showcase Showdown.
Contestant's row was eliminated for the 1994 syndicated edition, although a similar concept, The Price WAS Right, was used on the majority of its episodes as a Showcase Showdown.
Many, if not, all, versions of The Price Is Right outside the US feature a Contestants' Row, with almost exact rules, except with different awards for an exact bid (or no bonus at all). Some CR podiums even have video screens (as used on the UK's Bruce's Price is Right) to display bids instead of toteboards.
[edit] Trivia
- Multiple overbids have occured on occasion. On two occasions, all four contestants managed to overbid four times.
