Grand Game
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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. On primetime, the cash prize is $20,000.
[edit] Gameplay
The contestant begins with $1 displayed on the game board, and a "target price." The contestant is then shown six grocery items, four out of the six items which have prices that are below the target price.
The contestant selects an item they believe is less than the target price. If they are correct, their winnings are multiplied by ten to $10. This is repeated for two more items, multiplying to $100 and then $1,000. To this point, if a contestant selects an item whose price is above the target price, they leave with the amount shown on the board, including $1 for choosing incorrectly on the first pick.
After winning $1,000, the contestant may quit the game and keep the $1,000 or risk it to choose the one remaining product that is less than the target price. If the contestant fails, the game ends, and they win nothing. However, if the contestant succeeds by picking the last item that is below the target price, they win the top prize of $10,000.
In Season 36, the reveal of the final item has changed on occasion in a manner similar to Shell Game at times. Host Drew Carey will occasionally reveal one or both of the two items left alone first, similar to Shell Game in that the host will unveil the shell without the chip, instead of the shell with the chip, when two shells remain, and only one chip is left; when this was performed initially, the sound effects manager was caught off guard and played the "buzzer" sound effect too early, spoiling the reveal. This has also been seen on 1 Right Price and 1 Wrong Price, but no such incidents have occurred there.
Other tricks used by Carey has been to intentionally face the audience, and not look at the tag, and allow the sounds effects manager and officials to see the price. This "blind" flip has, on one occasion, caused the price cover to break off the platform and fall onto the stage.
Starting in 2002, Grand Game's top prize for primetime specials is $20,000, with the rest of the prize ladder being $2, $20, $200, $2,000.
[edit] History
The music sting used to introduce the game is the last few seconds of the theme to Family Feud.
On 1994's syndicated The New Price Is Right, the items in play were small prizes instead of grocery items. Target prices ranged from $50 to over $100.
[edit] Foreign versions of Grand Game
While Grand Game's rules in other countries tend to be the same as the US, they may have different cash prizes, such as $2,000 on Canada's Misez Juste, or 10,000 francs on France's Le Juste Prix (equalling about US$2,000 after conversion to the euro).
Germany's Der Preis ist Heiss was overhauled for their version, called Vier mal die Nul (Four times the Zero). To win the DM10,000 grand prize, a contestant had to pick which was the correct product to a given question (i.e., which costs more?). Like the US, they started at DM1, and they used grocery products.
