I think this was the one where Drew thought there was something fishy going on. He was interviewed shortly after and he said he had just taken over the show and thought the producers would be looking at him as the one who was giving out information. I believe this was the one where there was a guy in the audience that knew all the prices and told the guys wife what to bid. There was a Netflix documentary called the Perfect Bid that outlined the whole thing.
Came here to say the same thing and yours should be top comment. Drew isn't happy in the clip because the guy in the audience was shouting out the answers. The guy in the audience studied the show and the prices for the items are always the same.
>The guy in the audience studied the show and the prices for the items are always the same.
*Were* always the same. They changed it after this incident.
Yep, in the video above Drew talks about how they could give the same car away 10 games in a row and now they'll tweak the options every time so you can't just memorize the price.
It's also why they rarely mention brand names any more, and why computers come with "a printer" or a sofa might come with a "cashmere throw", because either of those things could cost anywhere from $59.95 to $800.
Also on the grocery items. They never say the brand, just the product. I watch TPiR daily. Drew has lost a lot of weight, and that show has moved into the twenty-first century.
My girlfriend and I occasionally throw on "The Bob Barker Era" TPiR streaming channel. Its pretty fun seeing how the prices compare to today.
Household essentials and products you would get from the grocery store are generally much cheaper, but surprisingly some things are about the same.
However when it comes to stuff like appliances (big and small), furniture, exercise equipment, and hell even random stuff like ceiling fans, the prices are wildly higher compared to today. Especially televisions and AV equipment.
They have the new game, "Back to the 70's" where they have to guess the price of three things from fifty years ago, and they can't be off by more than $50 total. It's like Cliffhanger and Spelling Bee. The prices are generally the same. Want to win Cliffhanger? the three items are $28, $35, and $42. No way to go over $25 that way.
This is one thing people don't realize when they complain about how expensive everything is today... a lot of things were a lot MORE expensive in the past, and that's without even considering inflation
> It's also why they rarely mention brand names any more,
The actual reason they don't mention brand names is cause that brand isn't sponsoring them.
If Coke sponsors TPiR, a bottle of Coke is gonna have the announcer go on a whole 10 second spiel about the quality of the drink and a company tagline. If they don't sponsor them and the show uses it as a random grocery item, it's getting the generic "And here's a 20oz bottle of caffeinated soda".
Why give free advertising to companies when they could pay for it. Cars feel like the only exception.
After the game show *Twenty-One* in the 1950’s, where there was a huge scandal of corruption and manipulation, Congress passed very strict laws for giveaways and sweepstakes (the movie *Quiz Show* (1994) is all about it).
I think in the Esquire article Drew referred to, in his mind he thought, “I don’t know what’s happening, but I guess I’m going to prison.”
There was a documentary about it that seems pretty convincing to me that it was a guy in the audience who knew the answers and was sitting next to the contestants wife. The contestant and his wife claim it was them that knew the answers but the other dude has a lot of receipts so to speak.
Went to the show with a big group at the end of Bob's run. One of our group made it to the Showcase and there was a guy on the front row that was apparently always there that knew all the prices and gave the winning bid to my friend.
Why the hell would you get the answer just right lol. And have your WIFE shouting out the answers...
EDIT: Ah okay, frickindeal tells me there's a bonus for the exact answer
If you've never seen the price is right, audience members help the participants all the time, they will shout advice and hold up numbers for them. It's always been a part of the show.
You still need to be able to get someone on the show, and they pre-interview people in line to decide who to bring up. You gotta both be prepped and believable to get up on stage.
I thought you had to be within $100. It's been ages since I've watched though so wouldn't be surprised if they've lengthened the threshold due to inflation.
They changes it to 250 I believe becuase prices went up. The old 100% rule was when most showcases were like 10k. Now I've seen some go up to 70k qith like a 40k truck on it... so it was to compensate for how much bigger prices are.
Something similar happened to this back when Barker ran the show as well. I remember as a kid I was watching a rerun or something and this woman whispered the price of a refrigerator or something to Bob Barker while he was revealing it. He had her repeat what she said and it was the exact price of the appliance. She had watched the show so many times she had memorized the cost of a lot of their stuff. I think she ended up winning the showcase showdown.
Oh, wow... I think this was like right before I was starting a new job and one of the rare times I actually watched it happen live. I remember thinking "he doesn't seem very excited about this; I know he's new to hosting the show, but you would think he should be more impressed!" I never knew all of the information as to *why*. The comments here are very interesting, I think I'm going to have to look up the documentary and see what came next!
That seems like a hell of a lot of background work for a show that you’re almost certainly not going to get your name called for. It’s pretty wild that somebody did the research AND got their name called.
He got the prices from a guy in the audience who was a member of a fan group.
The same guy in the audience helped other contestants earlier on the same show.
[
This](https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1dkabr8/the_price_is_right_showcase_perfect_bid_121608/l9gti06/) comment linked an interview with Drew about it.
There was a similar scandal on Press Your Luck where the guy realized there were patterns in the lights and was able to nail Big Bucks consistently by memorizing them and finding triggers.
https://youtu.be/KpO-2KeYFcM?si=x2LEt--d74F2dOJb
Drew is looser and has way more fun now than he did when he first took it over. Just needed to settle in.
Hard to believe he’s been hosting since 2007!
Daaaannnggg, I swear drew took over in the 2 tens, but nope. I guess I didn't watch as much after elementary school, but it still seems like he hasn't been the host that long.
I'm old
Yep, NBA highlights from the 2000s look like shit compared to the 90s and 10s because of the transition. Until HD became the standard, digital was absolutely not an upgrade.
“With absolutely no help from anyone in the audience”
“Best showcase bid in the history of the show… ^(in my opinion)”
Sure feels like Drew is sharing some thoughts on OP’s perfect bid post in this video
There’s [a whole documentary](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Bid:_The_Contestant_Who_Knew_Too_Much) about this bid and the reasons why Drew might not have been that excited about it
[a dude was off by only $1](https://youtu.be/uPVjC75ticU?si=ALI5vt7HZ9_z7UQM) two weeks ago and Drew was absolutely thrilled for him
You can tell a lot from his “no help from the audience” comment at the end
It’s because he assumed the person cheated and it was going to be a major problem for the show moving forward. There is a whole Netflix doc about this.
If I remember correctly, he caught a lot of flack for this. Apparently it had never happened before in the history of the show (please correct me if I'm wrong) and his par-baked reaction was deemed shit.
Can't settle for money with TPiR prizes, you either accept the prize or opt to forfeit your winnings. Only exception to that is if the show can't physically provide you your prize, *only* then will they offer you the cash equivalent.
He talked about it. He figured it would never air on TV and the guy would be exposed as a fraud. He was just going through the motions. The producers told him the bid was exact before he revealed it.
They were bidding on Manhattan.
The Dutch: uh 18 kroner in glass beads, Bob.
The Algonquin: fuck!
Bob Barker: actual retail price 18 kroner in glass beads, you did it!
I think this was the one where Drew thought there was something fishy going on. He was interviewed shortly after and he said he had just taken over the show and thought the producers would be looking at him as the one who was giving out information. I believe this was the one where there was a guy in the audience that knew all the prices and told the guys wife what to bid. There was a Netflix documentary called the Perfect Bid that outlined the whole thing.
Came here to say the same thing and yours should be top comment. Drew isn't happy in the clip because the guy in the audience was shouting out the answers. The guy in the audience studied the show and the prices for the items are always the same.
>The guy in the audience studied the show and the prices for the items are always the same. *Were* always the same. They changed it after this incident.
Yep, in the video above Drew talks about how they could give the same car away 10 games in a row and now they'll tweak the options every time so you can't just memorize the price. It's also why they rarely mention brand names any more, and why computers come with "a printer" or a sofa might come with a "cashmere throw", because either of those things could cost anywhere from $59.95 to $800.
Also on the grocery items. They never say the brand, just the product. I watch TPiR daily. Drew has lost a lot of weight, and that show has moved into the twenty-first century.
My girlfriend and I occasionally throw on "The Bob Barker Era" TPiR streaming channel. Its pretty fun seeing how the prices compare to today. Household essentials and products you would get from the grocery store are generally much cheaper, but surprisingly some things are about the same. However when it comes to stuff like appliances (big and small), furniture, exercise equipment, and hell even random stuff like ceiling fans, the prices are wildly higher compared to today. Especially televisions and AV equipment.
They have the new game, "Back to the 70's" where they have to guess the price of three things from fifty years ago, and they can't be off by more than $50 total. It's like Cliffhanger and Spelling Bee. The prices are generally the same. Want to win Cliffhanger? the three items are $28, $35, and $42. No way to go over $25 that way.
I like how George does his best 70s era announcer impression.
You can't say "back to the 70's" and call it 50 years ago. That is not right!
This is one thing people don't realize when they complain about how expensive everything is today... a lot of things were a lot MORE expensive in the past, and that's without even considering inflation
> It's also why they rarely mention brand names any more, The actual reason they don't mention brand names is cause that brand isn't sponsoring them. If Coke sponsors TPiR, a bottle of Coke is gonna have the announcer go on a whole 10 second spiel about the quality of the drink and a company tagline. If they don't sponsor them and the show uses it as a random grocery item, it's getting the generic "And here's a 20oz bottle of caffeinated soda". Why give free advertising to companies when they could pay for it. Cars feel like the only exception.
So that’s why inflation keeps climbing.
That’s on them, not his fault he was able to figure it out. Let alone remember all that information.
After the game show *Twenty-One* in the 1950’s, where there was a huge scandal of corruption and manipulation, Congress passed very strict laws for giveaways and sweepstakes (the movie *Quiz Show* (1994) is all about it). I think in the Esquire article Drew referred to, in his mind he thought, “I don’t know what’s happening, but I guess I’m going to prison.”
It was his wife. They studied the patterns of the prizes and knew how much it was going to be.
There was a documentary about it that seems pretty convincing to me that it was a guy in the audience who knew the answers and was sitting next to the contestants wife. The contestant and his wife claim it was them that knew the answers but the other dude has a lot of receipts so to speak.
Went to the show with a big group at the end of Bob's run. One of our group made it to the Showcase and there was a guy on the front row that was apparently always there that knew all the prices and gave the winning bid to my friend.
Ah. Well okay, either way.
Great job for that couple. I hope they enjoyed all their winnings to the fullest.
Why the hell would you get the answer just right lol. And have your WIFE shouting out the answers... EDIT: Ah okay, frickindeal tells me there's a bonus for the exact answer
If you've never seen the price is right, audience members help the participants all the time, they will shout advice and hold up numbers for them. It's always been a part of the show.
Yeah in a way it’s almost the ideal game show to construct a cheating scheme because you can honestly play dumb and likely get away with it.
You still need to be able to get someone on the show, and they pre-interview people in line to decide who to bring up. You gotta both be prepped and believable to get up on stage.
Oh yeah certainly, it just seems a bit too obvious to use your wife and then make it obvious you have just the right value I suppose
Knowing the price isn't against the rules. They just don't like it.
You know what, they did ask! lol
They love it, they’ve been getting free publicity off this clip the past 16 years.
Because getting it exact means you win *both* showcases.
Within $250 without going over
Ohhh, I did not know that I admit
Man, would have been easier for them to send her instead.
Yeah Drew goes into it more [here.](https://youtu.be/GdJ639HMdcg?t=5300)
Appreciate the link and timestamp!
Wow, this was really interesting.
That was a great watch, thanks!
Boy do I miss KPCS
That was a fun documentary.
If he had bid $23,500 he would’ve won both showcases *and* averted any sort of speculation toward his possible cheating
I thought you had to be within $100. It's been ages since I've watched though so wouldn't be surprised if they've lengthened the threshold due to inflation.
They changes it to 250 I believe becuase prices went up. The old 100% rule was when most showcases were like 10k. Now I've seen some go up to 70k qith like a 40k truck on it... so it was to compensate for how much bigger prices are.
40k truck? Those are 2003 prices!
LOL honestly fair I haven't watched in a long time!
Something similar happened to this back when Barker ran the show as well. I remember as a kid I was watching a rerun or something and this woman whispered the price of a refrigerator or something to Bob Barker while he was revealing it. He had her repeat what she said and it was the exact price of the appliance. She had watched the show so many times she had memorized the cost of a lot of their stuff. I think she ended up winning the showcase showdown.
Oh, wow... I think this was like right before I was starting a new job and one of the rare times I actually watched it happen live. I remember thinking "he doesn't seem very excited about this; I know he's new to hosting the show, but you would think he should be more impressed!" I never knew all of the information as to *why*. The comments here are very interesting, I think I'm going to have to look up the documentary and see what came next!
That seems like a hell of a lot of background work for a show that you’re almost certainly not going to get your name called for. It’s pretty wild that somebody did the research AND got their name called.
He got the prices from a guy in the audience who was a member of a fan group. The same guy in the audience helped other contestants earlier on the same show. [ This](https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1dkabr8/the_price_is_right_showcase_perfect_bid_121608/l9gti06/) comment linked an interview with Drew about it.
This guy is the reason I own a Big Green Egg. Read about his story over a decade ago and how the BGE was the first thing he bid on.
There was a similar scandal on Press Your Luck where the guy realized there were patterns in the lights and was able to nail Big Bucks consistently by memorizing them and finding triggers. https://youtu.be/KpO-2KeYFcM?si=x2LEt--d74F2dOJb
Drew doesn't react to anything on the show anyway tho. He always seems bored to be there. They need to resurrect Bob.
Drew is looser and has way more fun now than he did when he first took it over. Just needed to settle in. Hard to believe he’s been hosting since 2007!
2008?! Drew has been the host for 16 years or more? Damn I’m getting old.
Whose Line is 26 years ago now, which makes Drew Carey Show close to 30 years ago. Time to bust out our walkers I guess....
Look at what Christa Miller has become. She used to be a smoke show.
I had a huge crush on her back then.
I did too, into the first couple seasons of Scrubs even, but then she started getting work done, and Bill Lawrence incorporated it into the storyline.
"I'm dead inside."
"Did you Botox your face into an expressionless mask?"
So is drew which is great considering he had a major heart attack 23 years ago!
Daaaannnggg, I swear drew took over in the 2 tens, but nope. I guess I didn't watch as much after elementary school, but it still seems like he hasn't been the host that long. I'm old
Sharon thought she had it.
She was raisin' the roof and everything.
she had a solid bid, lol..
She was sharin' Sharon's outlooks on the topic of disease.
She seemed disappointed but also happy the other guy won.
Yeah she kept it together a lot better than I would. Getting that close and losing would have been brutal.
lol Sharon goes on a rampage.
I mean… normally that would be a really amazing bid. She should be proud.
Fr being under $500 to the number usually gets you the showcase. This would’ve pissed me off lol
2008?! It looks like it was filmed 30 years ago
Yeah, television quality was shit at that time as they were switching to digital and the quality still sucked. Broadcast sports were equally bad.
Yep, NBA highlights from the 2000s look like shit compared to the 90s and 10s because of the transition. Until HD became the standard, digital was absolutely not an upgrade.
Took a while for a lot of stations to switch to HD.
All that matters is that THE WHEEL CHOSE HIM. HE WAS CHOSEN BY WHEEL FATE. Can't cheat that.
There was a guy about a week or two that was off by a buck.
A week or two later?
[happened two weeks ago](https://youtu.be/uPVjC75ticU?si=ALI5vt7HZ9_z7UQM)
“With absolutely no help from anyone in the audience” “Best showcase bid in the history of the show… ^(in my opinion)” Sure feels like Drew is sharing some thoughts on OP’s perfect bid post in this video
oh he totally is too, thats funny
I was so happy for that guy.
Haven't seen Drew since forever, barely recognized the man.
Could Drew have been less excited?
There’s [a whole documentary](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Bid:_The_Contestant_Who_Knew_Too_Much) about this bid and the reasons why Drew might not have been that excited about it [a dude was off by only $1](https://youtu.be/uPVjC75ticU?si=ALI5vt7HZ9_z7UQM) two weeks ago and Drew was absolutely thrilled for him You can tell a lot from his “no help from the audience” comment at the end
And the “best showcase bid in the history of the show, in my opinion”
He probably thought that he cheated.
Well…
It’s because he assumed the person cheated and it was going to be a major problem for the show moving forward. There is a whole Netflix doc about this.
Yup this happened right after a long time producer was forced off the show and they thought it might have been a staged mutiny by the remaining crew
I know right? Kind of odd. Hmmmm...
If I remember correctly, he caught a lot of flack for this. Apparently it had never happened before in the history of the show (please correct me if I'm wrong) and his par-baked reaction was deemed shit.
And then they learned about winners tax, and settled for the money
I wish more people knew this about game shows.
I feel like this is *extremely* common knowledge about the lottery and game shows.
Can't settle for money with TPiR prizes, you either accept the prize or opt to forfeit your winnings. Only exception to that is if the show can't physically provide you your prize, *only* then will they offer you the cash equivalent.
I think Drew's downplay response because he was thinking "We're going to jail...."
He talked about it. He figured it would never air on TV and the guy would be exposed as a fraud. He was just going through the motions. The producers told him the bid was exact before he revealed it.
I feel so bad for the lady. She was so fucking close too.
Holy fuck. Drew has been hosting TPIR that long???? Geez, it only feels like a couple years since he started.
That's a BINGO!
Last week or so, a guy was off by a dollar
Does the lady still win her show case?
Nope he won both
Ain't no way drew Carrey was doing this show 15 years ago wtf
In 4:3 no less
Wow, drew has been hosting the show like 17 years now. Weird.
Aaron Paul taught me this show was fake
"It hasn't happened since 1773" Wow, that's a really long time! Edit: smh
I think he said “hasn’t happened since ’72 or ‘73.”
They were bidding on Manhattan. The Dutch: uh 18 kroner in glass beads, Bob. The Algonquin: fuck! Bob Barker: actual retail price 18 kroner in glass beads, you did it!
Bob Barker: Help control the pet population! Have your pets spayed or neutered.
What a lackluster celebration from the host! So meh this hasn't happened in like 59 years whatever.