Grand Game

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Host Bob Barker and a contestant beside the "Grand Game" board
Host Bob Barker and a contestant beside the "Grand Game" board

Grand Game is a pricing game on the American television game show, The Price Is Right. Debuting on May 16, 1980, it is played for a cash prize of $10,000, and uses grocery items.

[edit] Gameplay

The contestant is given $1 and shown six grocery items and a "target price." Four of the items are below the target price, while two are higher.

One at a time, the contestant selects items whose prices he believes are below the target price. Host Bob Barker then reveals the price of the product. A correct decision adds a zero to the player's bank. Thus, the possible prizes for the first three correct guesses were $10, $100 and $1,000. The contestant receives $1 if he offers an incorrect guess on the first item.

After the third correct guess, the contestant is given the option of either taking the $1,000, or risking it to pick the one remaining item that is below the target price. A correct decision wins the $10,000 grand prize.

However, an incorrect decision at any point ends the game. The contestant keeps any cash won if the mistake is made prior to the fourth guess; being wrong on the fourth guess means the contestant loses everything.

[edit] Trivia

  • On the primetime specials in 2002 and beyond, Grand Game's top prize is $20,000. The other possible prizes on these shows are $2, $20, $200, and $2,000.
  • Grand Game is the only pricing game that does not involve the Barker's Beauties in any way.
  • Grand Game's first win is one of the better-known moments in the show's history. The contestant was a Samoan woman named Pauline who, upon winning, chased Bob around the stage for about half a minute while trying to hug him.
  • The music that plays while the Grand Game board is revealed is the very end of the original Family Feud theme.
    • In at least Seasons 21 and 22, the remix of the Family Feud theme from Ray Combs's version of the show was used.
  • During the '80s, one could always tell when Grand Game was going to be played; its board is so tall that part of it stuck out from behind the Giant Price Tag. Sometime in the early '90s, the show began leaving the Giant Price Tag a few inches off the floor when this game was played in an effort to correct this.
  • On 1994's syndicated The New Price Is Right, the items in play were not grocery items but instead were small prizes commonly featured on games such as Plinko. As such, it was not uncommon to see "target prices" of $100 or more.
  • Grand Game's top prize has never changed except on primetime specials, despite the fact $10,000 in 2007 is worth only about one third of what it was worth in 1980.

[edit] See also