Spelling Bee (pricing game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bob Barker and a contestant standing in front of the "Spelling Bee" board

Spelling Bee is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. Debuting on September 15, 1988, this game is played for either a car or a cash prize of up to $2,500; and uses small prizes.

1 Gameplay
- 1.1 Card frequency
2 Trivia
3 See also

[edit] Gameplay

The object of Spelling Bee is to draw either three cards that contain each of the letters in the word "CAR" or one card that bears the word "car" itself, from a board of 30 cards.

To start the game, the contestant is given two free cards. The contestant can earn up to three additional cards by guessing the prices of small prizes within $10 above or below the actual price. Each item is played one at a time; a guess within the $10 range wins the prize and allows the contestant another pick from the board. However, a perfect bid wins all three additional cards and all three prizes, regardless of the outcome on any previous prize.

In the second part of the game, the contestant is offered a cash buyout - $500 for every card drawn, up to $2,500 possible - or give up $500 to look under one of the cards. The contestant can stop at any time and keep any remaining cash, but if he/she can spell the word "CAR" with at least three individual cards drawn, or unveils the word "CAR" on any single card, the contestant wins the car.

The game ends in one of the following ways:

Wins the car either by spelling "CAR" (with three or more individual cards), or finding a CAR card. He/she does not keep any remaining cash, however.
The contestant quits and keeps any cash remaining.
Loses by running out of cards before spelling "CAR" or finding the word "CAR".

[edit] Card frequency

Distribution of the 30 cards is as follows:

C - 11 cards.
A - 11 cards.
R - Six cards.
CAR - Two cards.

[edit] Trivia

Although the odds are roughly 196.29 to 1, two contestants have accomplished the feat of finding the cards that spell out the word "CAR" (one each of each letter), plus both "CAR" cards.

In the rare event that the small prize podiums are not working properly, the prices for each small prize are displayed on cards. Such an event occurred on the December 12, 2005 show.

Spelling Bee is the only game whose official name cannot be written out with the Latin alphabet. The game's official title has a picture of a bee that takes the place of the word "Bee" in the logo.