Top 10 Moments of 2008: Number Seven
Number seven on our list of the top ten moments of 2008 is, again, from The Price is Right. A lot nicer and happier moment, too. The special million dollar primetime episodes went through a bit of a change since Bob Barker left the show. Instead of blind luck like winning the million spinning the big wheel, the show asked you to have a bit of skill to win the $1,000,000. For the first few episodes, if you came within $1,000 of your Showcase value, you won both Showcases as well as $1,000,000. A bit easy, but still nice to see a big win like that. After it happened twice in an extremely short period of time, this was fixed to a much more deserving $500 range.
The other way to win the million was in a pricing game, and this is where our moment really kicks in. One of the million dollar pricing games was Clock Game. For the million dollars, the contestant had to guess the exact price of two sub-$1,000 items in as much as ten seconds. It was very hard to do, but very possible. Contestant Cynthia Azevado proved this to be true as she made an unexpected perfect bid off the bat on the very first prize. She still had ten seconds to guess the final item, which she did. Clock Game’s gotten a bit easy since the only way to make prizes seem decent is to have them be right around the $999 level nowadays (and now they are thankfully going above the $1,000 level for prizes to not make the game look so cheap), but it was one of the best playings of any pricing game I’ve ever seen, especially with the perfect bid for the first prize, and one of the most deserving million dollar wins of the year. Probably my favorite million dollar win of the year as well.
Moment of Truth: Too easy for a million dollar game, or just right? Also, what do you think would make a better million dollar game in the next series of episodes.
Not quite sure a $1m *pricing game* works but this is just right if there’s a $1k+ prize, maybe a touch easy as is but she certainly took advantage to play it brilliantly. Still tougher to win than DoND, where all you have to do is disregard the value of money for however many hours it takes to tape a show these days.
I’d personally say that the $250 margin should’ve stayed for a $1m win, but with an increased $1k margin for a DSW.
I thought the $1,000 range was just right, but apparently the insurance company didn’t think so. A $500 range is doable.
I probably would have liked the $1M Clock Game better if the prices were something obscure like $862, not anything like $899 or $999. If you’ve seen this game 3 or 4 times, you’ll know the second prize is always $999. I like the fact that it is now played for prizes over $1K, but I say hold back on the motorcycles & hot tubs. $1,000 to $2,000 will work nicely without making it too hard.
If I made a M$G, I’d retool Plinko. 4 out of 4-6 chips in the $20K slot is just plain hard. I’d hide the in one of the podiums where the “regular” chips are, and make them earn it. After the contestant drops their 1-4 “regular” chips, they drop the golden chip. It counts as an ordinary chip with one exception. If it lands in the 20K slot, the contestant gets to drop the golden chip one more time. Whatever it lands is multiplied by 10, but if it lands in the $20K again the contestant wins $1,000,000
Old rules: With 5 chips, putting 3 in the 20K: (.0592592592%*) + putting gold chip in 20K (11.1111%*) equals 0.065843621399176%
My rules: 50% chance of winning gold chip, 11.11%* chance of hitting 20K with gold chip, 11.11% chance of hitting 20K a second time with gold chip equals 0.617283938271605%. Odds almost 10 times better, yet still difficult.
I think winning $1,000,000 in the showcase should only be done within $100 (the original DSW requirement)…it would be extremely hard to do, nowadays. Plus…during the day, you have to be within $250…but, to win $1,000,000, you only have to be within $1000 or $500…HUH ? Granted, the prizes are sometimes more extravagant…but, that really shouldn’t matter, in my opinion.
As for this Clock Game moment, as soon as she got that perfect bid, I was thinking FIX…a la moment #8…and they were 6 months apart…and moment #8 eventually played out exactly like I thought #7 should have played out…for 2 reasons…
1. How on EARTH did she get a perfect bid on The Clock Game?…until that moment, I had NEVER seen that…EVER.
2. Why on EARTH would you put a prize worth $999 in a Million Dollar Game? The producers must’ve been thinking: “Please win the big money…it’ll boost our ratings…PLEASE? Pretty please, with sugar on top?” Between those two moments, I have almost completely stopped watching the show, entirely.
Jay: Your idea of winning the million in the showcases would never happen…ever.
I think it’s in-between. Some of the games are easy, while some of them are very hard.
Here’s what I think would make the best $1 million games:
One Away: Get all 5 numbers right.
Cliffhangers: Stay within $10 the entire game.
Grocery Game: Get the total to be $20 on the dot.
To me, the million dollar games are just right because they reward a smart TPIR player who knows a bit about the prizes and know the “unwritten rules” of a game (i.e.: the prices always end in 0 for Ten Chances) At the time, the Clock Game had a lot of prizes that had prices with $_49 or $_99 endings. I think the producers took a gamble on the two prizes selected for this particular Clock Game; thinking that having those prices would give a contestant the best chance to guess them in 10 seconds, but also thinking that they would get a contestant that normally play the game (begin with general guesses like ($600, $700, etc.) and eliminates the chance at the million. Instead, they got someone who took a chance by guessing $899 and $999 and won.
In regards to the showcase million dollar win thresehold, I like the $500 level. With the added price of the showcase it is tougher for a normal contestant to get that close. There have been a lot more five digit underbids than million dollar winners with these special showcases.
Also, here are a few more ideas for million dollar games…
Dice Game: Roll the right digit for the four dices.
Ten Chances: Get all three prices in the first three chances.
Spelling Bee: Get one of the two ‘CAR’ card with the first card.
Todd: That’s the whole point…to make winning $1,000,000 more difficult. They were throwing around big money like candy. Besides, who (besides you) says it can’t happen? They just had a perfect bid…so, I respectfully disagree with you by saying…although difficult (which was my point)…it CAN happen. What happened to the days when winning $1,000,000 WAS difficult? They should bring them back.
Here’s how Hole-in-One could be played as the Million Dollar Game. First, price all six items correctly from least to most expensive for the cash bonus and the right to putt from the line closest to the hole. Second, sink the putt from that really close line on one try to win the car. Third, the contestant has to decide whether to keep the car and the cash or risk it all on a making the putt from the line furthest from the hole. Sink that putt on one try to keep the car and cash while adding the $1 million. Miss it and all is lost.
I think some of the M$Games should be based on the ones in BigJon’s TPIR Computer game, including:
One Away: Get All 5 Numbers on the first shot (Which I think They Did on the actual show)
Cover Up: See One Away
Check-Out: come within 10 Cents above/below the total
Cliff Hangers: Move no more than 10 steps
Dice Game: Get the numbers exactly right OR roll a 1 and/or 6 all the way through
As for original Ideas…
Lucky $even/3 Strikes: All the Numbers without making a mistake/strike
It’s In the Bag: After winning the main Prize, have the contestant guess what the price of the remaining item is, and if it’s between 10 cents above/below, they get the Million.
Race Game/Bonkers: Get Everything right on the first try (And it can be done).
I agree with Justin, however, with Lucky Seven, I think they should get a $2 window, that is, lose no more than $2 to make it $1,000,000 and the car, or, before the game starts, have them guess the whole price, and if they’re within, say, $100, they win the money.
Simple…1 in a million (no pun intended) guess.
TI think all the M$ Games are covered.
I always thought the $1000 range was fair. It may be four times larger, but then, so were the Showcases. I think if you look back to previous Showcases in MDSs, contestants were often short by $10,000 or more. One of the people on Golden Road.net said that they were helping Adam Rose when he won the first million dollar prize, so that wasn’t as big a shock as it could have been.