The Price Is Right is a television game show franchise created by Bob Stewart, originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman; currently it is produced and owned by Fremantle. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also includes merchandise such as video games, printed media, and board games. The franchise began in 1956 as a television game show hosted by Bill Cullen and was revamped in 1972, initially as "The New Price Is Right". This version was originally hosted by Bob Barker. Drew Carey has hosted the program since 2007. Contestants on the show compete to win cash and prizes by guessing the price of merchandise. The program has been critically successful and remains a stalwart in the television ratings. It also managed to break away from the quiz show format that has been used in other game shows. Since the current version premiered, it has also been adapted in several international formats around the world most notably in the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Mexico and France. In 2013, TV Guide ranked it No. 5 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.
1956–1965
The original version of The Price Is Right was first broadcast on NBC, and later ABC, from 1956 to 1965. Hosted by Bill Cullen, it involved four contestants bidding on a wide array of merchandise prizes with retail prices ranging from a few dollars (in many cases, "bonus" prizes were given to the winner afterward) to thousands. Though conducted in an auction style, Cullen did not play the role of auctioneer. Instead, contestants would try to bid as close to a product's actual retail price without exceeding that price. Depending on the prize, contestants were either allowed, in proper turn, to make multiple bids, or restricted to only one bid. In the case of the former, each contestant would bid on an item until a buzzer sounded. The contestant could make a final bid, or "freeze". The contestant whose bid was closest to, but not more than, the correct value of the prize won it. There was also a special game set aside for the home viewer that offered several prizes in a package, which usually included a luxury vacation trip and/or a new car. Viewers submitted their bids via postcards, and the winner was announced on the air. At the end of each episode, the contestant who had won the most (by dollar value) was declared the winner and became the returning champion, entitled to play again on the next episode. This version began as part of NBC's daytime schedule. A series of technical problems allegedly made the pilot episode look bad enough for NBC to decline to purchase the show, but after an appeal from the producers, citing the fact that all TV shows at the time were given at least 13 weeks to succeed or fail, it aired on the network. It became successful enough to warrant a second version of the series, beginning on prime time in the fall of 1957. Shown weekly, that version became the first TV game show to be broadcast in color. After being a top-10 primetime show for some time, the show's ratings gradually but noticeably declined, and by 1963 NBC had canceled it. The show was then picked up by ABC and ran in prime time on that network for one full season (1963–64); the daytime version ended in 1965.
1972–present
Format Since 1972, the current version of The Price Is Right has used the same structure:
One Bid, in which four players in Contestants' Row bid on a prize, attempting to give the prize's actual retail price without exceeding it. The price is revealed and the player with the winning bid goes on stage to play a pricing game. The first four players on Contestants' Row are called from the studio audience at the start of the show, and after each pricing game, a new player is called to fill the vacant slot. Pricing games, in which the contestant plays for a range of prizes, frequently money or automobiles, with most games based on the player's knowledge of the retail price of the prizes or other consumer goods like food and household products. The Showcase, in which the two top players of the day are shown two showcases, which are collections of prizes. After the first showcase is revealed, the top player is awarded the option of bidding on the first showcase or passing it to the other player. The second showcase is then revealed and bid upon by the player who did not bid upon the first. The player who bids closer to, but does not exceed, the total retail price of their showcase wins it. If the difference between a contestant's bid and the showcase's value is within a certain range, the player wins both showcases; this range has varied over time. If both players overbid, neither wins. When the new format debuted as The New Price Is Right, shows were 30 minutes in length; three pricing games were played and the two contestants with the highest winnings entered the Showcase. By June 1973, the show was renamed back to The Price Is Right. The show was expanded into an hour-long format on November 3, 1975, allowing six pricing games to be played per episode. A new feature, the Showcase Showdown, was added to select the two players for the Showcase. It is played after the first three players have completed their pricing games to select one player from the first half of the show, and again after the last three. In the Showdown, each player is given two chances to spin a large wheel that displays all amounts from 5¢ to $1.00 in 5¢ increments. The player may elect to hold after his or her first spin or to take a second spin; if a second spin occurs, the amount of the second spin is added to the first spin, potentially causing the contestant's total to exceed $1.00 and eliminate the contestant. The player whose total is the closest to $1.00 without exceeding $1.00 advances to the Showcase. A score of exactly $1.00, accomplished by either the first spin stopping on the $1.00 value or by the total of two spins equaling $1.00, awards a cash bonus and gives the player a chance to win larger amounts in a bonus spin.
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