Comments for the Week of October 29-November 2

Biggest winner this week: Krista Scoby ($43,168) (October 31) Nine one prize games were played this week - Bonkers and Range Game were the only games in this category that got the week off. Three small prize games were played on Wednesday's episode (Punch a Bunch, Plinko, Rat Race) - the first time more than two small prize games were played in the same episode. Overall, seven small prize games were played this week, another first. (No other week in Price is Right history has featured more than six small prize games.) While the small prize games are being played at a frantic pace, the grocery product games continue to be ignored. Out of the 30 episodes that have aired this season, 10 have not featured a grocery product game. (By comparison, every single episode this season has featured at least one small prize game.) With the grocery product games fighting for airtime, it's not surprising that Let 'em Roll, Pass the Buck and Pick-a-Pair have yet to be played this season. After just four playings, $25,500 has already been won in Punch a Bunch this season. That's already more than what was won in all of Season 39 ($22,400) and Season 38 ($20,550). It's also well on pace to surpass Season 33 ($49,300) - the current high in the past nine seasons. Punch a Bunch's average winnings this season ($6,375) is also ahead of Plinko's ($5,420). If that somehow held, that would almost certainly be the first time Punch a Bunch had a more successful season (since Plinko's top prize was increased to $50,000). The $2,500 partial win in Plinko on Wednesday was the 100th time a Pricing Game was not fully won this season. In Friday's one bids, contestants bid $1 more than a previous contestant seven times. (Prior to Friday, the most number of $1-ups this season was 5 on October 4 and October 15.) Unfortunately, Friday was not the day to $1-up a contestant - only one out of these seven contestants wound up winning the one bid round. There was some interesting slotting this week: Balance Game was played first for only the second time in its history. (It was also played first on March 30, 2010.) 10 Chances was played fourth for the first time since October 17, 2008. 1/2 Off was played sixth for only the second time in its history. (It was also played last on February 8, 2012.) After the October 12 episode, the overall Pricing Game winning percentage for this season was 42.2%. In the three weeks since that date, only 33/90 Pricing Games were fully won, which has dropped the overall winning percentage to 39.44%. Not only has the win rate dropped below 40%, but we are now in danger of falling below last season's win rate (39.27%).

Comments for the Week of November 5-9

Biggest winner this week: Theresa Dark ($52,394) (November 8) The Pricing Games went 15/30 this week - matching the week ending October 12 for the best weekly record so far this season. Pricing Game winning or losing streaks snapped: Danger Price - the game had been lost six straight times - it had last been won on April 3, 2012 Push Over - the game had been won five straight time (four times based on intended airdates) - it had last been lost on May 10, 2012 Most Expen$ive - the game had been lost six straight times (five times based on intended airdates) - it had last been won on June 11, 2012. On Monday, Tiffany won Money Game in three tries. Money Game was last played perfectly on October 20, 2010, so it's rare seeing Money Game won so quickly. Also on Monday, Carly nearly won Pathfinder without making a single mistake. Last time Pathfinder was played perfectly: July 17, 2008. This was the third time since then where a contestant has made it to the fifth number without making a mistake. (It also happened on October 14, 2009 and June 11, 2012.) On Tuesday, Any Number was played fourth for the first time since November 5, 2009. On Wednesday, all six one bids were won by contestants bidding either first or second. The only other time that's happened in the past two seasons was on March 23, 2012. (Historically, 60% of one bids are won by either the third or fourth bidders, so this is not a common occurrence.) Since the start of Season 40 (when the prize distribution in Punch a Bunch was altered), contestants have always kept slips worth $5,000 or more and have almost always given back slips worth $1,000 or less (only one contestant kept a $1,000 slip). It looks like $2,500 is the only amount that makes contestants think twice about whether or not to quit - since it was introduced, 6 have kept a $2,500 slip while 3 have given it back. On Friday, Triple Play was played sixth - the first time the game has ever been played in a position other than first. Unfortunately, the change in time slot did not help the game snap its lengthy losing streak. There were some expensive Showcases offered this week: $58,342 on Tuesday and $53,263 on Friday. In fact, excluding the season premiere, those were the most expensive Showcases of the season so far. This week also featured the first episode(s) of the season that did not have a small prize game (November 9) and that had two 3-4 prize games (November November 5 and November 8) in its Pricing Game lineup. For those keeping score, here are the results, by military branch, of the past five "Salute to the Military" specials: Branch  Contestants   One Bids Won   Pricing  Games  Showdowns Won   Showcases Won   Total Won   Biggest Winner  Air Force 12 9 4/9 3 2 $178,053 Brandi ($87,259) (Nov. 11, 2009) Army 10 6 3/6 2 0 $53,204 Deborah ($24,099) (Nov. 14, 2008) Coast Guard 5 3 2/3 1 0 $35,062 Joshua ($25,205) (Nov. 11, 2010) Marines 10 7 3/7 3 3 $205,354 Christopher ($59,458) (Nov. 11, 2011) Navy 8 5 2/5 1 0 $29,055 Brittany ($15,348) (Nov. 9, 2012)

Comments for the Week of November 12-16

Biggest winner this week: Jonathan Villafuerte ($53,735) (November 13) - Jonathan is the third biggest winner so far this season. For the fourth time this season, only one car was won in the Pricing Games played this week. Overall, 21.2% of Pricing Games played for a car have been won this season, which is well under the mark set last season (26.6%). Master Key was played for the third time this season on Monday. Considering it was played only five times in Season 40, Master Key has seen a significant increase in play to start Season 41. Master Key was also played first for the first time since October 5, 2009. Also on Monday, Philip stopped the Range Game rangefinder approximately $178 below the actual retail price of the prize. That's the largest miss in this game since May 1, 2009 ($195 away). On Tuesday, Secret "X" was played first for quite possibly the first time since its debut season back in 1977. In addition, More or Less was played second for the first time since April 8, 2009. (It's the only two times More or Less was played second since Season 35.) Before Tuesday's playing, the last time More or Less was lost on the first prize: May 30, 2010. This was the tenth wipeout in More or Less' history. Since Season 38, Magic # has a record of 1-13 when offering a range of less than $2,700 between both prizes and a record of 4-0 when the range exceeds $2,700. (The lone win in the 1-13 span had a range of $1,302.) On Friday, Double Cross was won for the seventh straight time. Double Cross is currently on one of the longest winning streaks in the past few seasons. Only Pick-a-Pair (15 wins in Seasons 39-40), Bullseye (8 wins since Season 40) and Cliff Hangers (7 wins in Season 40) have had similar success. Also on Friday, Jack was $5.23 away from the $2 range in Check-Out. That's the largest miss in this game since August 27, 2010 ($7.58 under the target). The largest miss since Season 29 was $13.98 on October 8, 2004. That's Too Much! was the most frequently played car game in both Season 39 (36 playings) and Season 40 (35 playings). So far this season, That's Too Much has only played three times. Eight car games have been played more often, including Dice Game (played only 14 times in Season 40), Rat Race (played 12 times in Season 40) and Pathfinder (played 12 times in Season 40).

Comments for the Week of November 19-23

Biggest winner this week: Larry Mercer ($37,924) (November 20) On Monday, 1 Wrong Price became the 100th Pricing Game playing that was won this season. (If you exclude the 2 $10,000+ wins in Plinko, then Shopping Spree on Tuesday was the 100th win of the season.) On Tuesday, the last three contestants called to contestant's row (Joseph, Chelsea, Emmeline) all won their way up on stage. Since the start of Season 38, that's only happened on three other occasions: May 6, 2010, January 21, 2011 and March 21, 2012. Also on Tuesday, Five Price Tags was played fourth. Last time that's happened: January 11, 2008. (Prior to January 2008, the last known time Five Price Tags was played fourth was in June 1976.) Dice Game was played for the seventh time this season on Tuesday. Considering it was played 14, 13, 15 and 14 times in the past four seasons, Dice Game has been a lot more than normal to start Season 41. Grand Game used a $2.00 target for the third time in recent memory on Tuesday (it was also $2.00 on May 31, 2010 and on November 21, 2010). The game was lost in two of those playings, with the contestant losing by picking the Viva paper towels both times. ($2.00 is the lowest target price used in this game since at least Season 29). It you look solely at its pricing portion, 1/2 Off is off to a good start this season: Three contestants have played it perfectly and have reduced the setup to two boxes. That's a very good start, considering there were only 5, 4, 1, 3 and 4 perfect playings in all of the previous five seasons. Unfortunately, 1/2 Off has only been won 33% of the time this season when contestants are left with a 50:50 shot of the $10,000. On Friday, Kimmmberley tried three different combinations more than once in Bonkers. That's the first time in this game's history where that's happened. In fact, repeating two different combinations is rare - it hasn't happened since May 15, 2009. (That playing was also lost.) Also on Friday, Ted had the right price for the car in Temptation, only to change one of the numbers. Last time that's happened: November 24, 2008. Luckily, we avoided a painful loss in both of these playings because the contestants wound up taking the gifts and quitting. The last time a contestant went for the car in Temptation and lost because they had changed one of the numbers: January 24, 2002. Contestants have now taken the gifts in each of the past five playings of Temptation. That equals the streak set at the end of Season 38 and the beginning of Season 39. Contestants have also now taken the gifts 23 times since Season 36 (48.9% of the time). By comparison, contestants took the gifts only 7 times between Season 29 and 35 (10.4% of the time). Right now, Flip Flop is the game that has been won most often this season (7 wins), while Freeze and Punch a Bunch has been lost most often (6 losses). If Flip Flop somehow managed to keep up this impressive pace, it would be the first time since Season 34 where the game won most often had more wins than the total losses from the game lost more often.

Comments for the Week of December 3-7

Biggest winner this week: Maurice & Kyle ($67,911) (December 6). Maurice & Kyle are the biggest winners so far this season. Approximately $418,057 in cash and prizes was won on the five episodes this week. That's the highest weekly winnings of the season, and the first time we cracked $400,000 in winnings since the week of June 4-8 in Season 40. A grocery product game was played on all five episodes this week - the first time this season that's happened. On Monday, 10 Chances was won in seven tries. That's the fastest win in this game since the game was won in six tries on May 3, 2009. (The six wins since then were won in eight, nine or ten tries.) 10 Chances has now been played 4 times this season. At that pace, it will easily surpass the frequency it has received recent seasons (8, 6, 7 and 6 times in Seasons 37-40). On Tuesday, Elizabeth putted from the line furthest from the hole in Hole in One. Last time that's happened: March 31, 2010. Since Season 32, seven contestant have putted from the line furthest from the hole (including Elizabeth). Impressively, five out of these seven contestants still managed to make the putt and win the car. Not a bad record for those being putting from the farthest possible distance. On Wednesday, there was a $4,092 difference between the fake price and the actual retail price of the game table in 1 Wrong Price. That's the biggest difference since at least Season 36 (Previous high: $3,151 on February 7, 2008) and quite likely the biggest difference in the game's history. (Even if you include the primetime specials when it was played for three cars.) On Thursday, Push Over was played fourth, becoming the first Pricing Game to be played in all six slots this season. Thursday also marked the first time this season where the Showcase winner (Gabrielle - $30,046) was not the biggest winner of the day (Charles - $33,138). A one prize quickie game was not played on Friday - the first time this season an episode did not feature at least one of these types of games. Also on Friday, Nicole became the first contestant in Rat Race history to pick the rats that finished 4th AND 5th. Congratulations? During Drew's tenure: Pricing Games played most often: Squeeze Play (185 times), Switch? (179 times), Lucky $even (177 times) Pricing Games played least often (Excluding retired and newly created games): Triple Play (17 times), Golden Road (20 times), 3 Strikes (21 times) Pricing Games with the best winning percentage: Double Cross (87.5%), Shell Game (83.3%), Bullseye (82.8%) Pricing Games with worst winning percentage: Pay the Rent/Golden Road (0%), Punch a Bunch (0.96%), Temptation (2.13%) Pricing Games won most often: Switch? (107 times), Double Prices (92 times), Cliff Hangers/Money Game/Most Expen$ive/1 Right Price (75 times) Pricing Games lost most often: Lucky $even (133 times), That's Too Much! (128 times), Squeeze Play (122 times) View the complete chart

Comments for the Week of December 10-14

Biggest winner this week: Jeremy Zuber ($44,851) (December 10) Pricing Game streaks snapped: Flip Flop - 6 straight wins (5 based on actual airdates) - the game had last been lost on October 26, 2012 Double Cross - 7 straight wins - the game had last been lost on June 8, 2012 Squeeze Play - 5 straight closses - the game had last been won on October 9, 2012 While Flip Flop and Double Cross were lost for the first time this season, Cliff Hangers keeps rolling along. With the win on Thursday, Cliff Hangers is now 8-0 to start Season 41. This is the best start to a season for this game since at least Season 29, besting the 7-0 starts in Seasons 36 and 40. Cliff Hangers contestants have been pretty consistent this season. Out of the eight wins, four ended the game with the mountain climber on the 16th step. (Another two contestants ended the game on the 17th and 18th steps.) In terms of winnings, this week set some new lows for the season: Lowest weekly winnings ($234,684) (Note that the value of the trip to Cancun, won on Friday's Clock Game, is unknown) Lowest winnings for a contestant that played a Pricing Game (Jason - $500 on Friday) Fewest car games won (zero) Fewest Pricing Games won (eight) Out of the $51,155 in prizes that was won on Tuesday, 83.0% of it was won by one contestant (Vanessa). That's the highest percentage of the season, besting Curtis on October 17 (77.9%). (Last season, the highest percentage was 87.3% on May 2.) Also on Tuesday, 1 Wrong Price was played first, becoming the second Pricing Game this season to be played in all six slots at least once. (Joining Push Over) Not only did Wednesday's episode end in a double overbid, but the overbids ($14,187 and $12,739) were the two largest overbids of the season. Since Season 36, 6 Money Game contestants have failed to get the first two numbers or the last two numbers in their first three picks (including Hans on Wednesday). Only one of these six contestants managed to come back and win the car: Daria on February 17, 2010. On Friday, Jason got all three small prizes wrong in Pathfinder. Last time that's happened: February 2, 2010. (24 playings ago) Also on Friday, John won Range Game even though the right price was $426 from the bottom of the scale. Previous time Range Game was won when the right price was in the top 1/3 of the scale: December 7, 2009 (The game had been lost 18 straight times when the right price was in the top 1/3 of the scale.) Tuesday was the 50th episode of the season. Based on these 50 episodes, several Pricing Games are on pace to have significant increases in play compared to last season: Coming or Going (+15), Side by Side (+12), Cliff Hangers (+10), One Away (+10), Pathfinder (+11) Several Pricing Games are also on pace to have significant decreases in play compared to last season: That's Too Much! (-20), Cover Up (-14), Bonkers (-13), 1 Right Price (-11), Pick-a-Pair (-11) View the complete chart

Comments for the Week of December 17-21

Biggest winner this week: Julianne Shook ($39,889) (December 21) On Tuesday, Flip Flop was won for the 9th time this season. Currently, Flip Flop has the same number of wins this season as all of the grocery product games combined. (Bullseye, Grocery Game and Hole in One have two wins each, Grand Game, Now or Then and Pick-a-Pair have one win each.) The six one bids offered on Tuesday's episode totalled $10,006. That's the first time this season the one bids exceeded $10,000 in value. (It happened 19 times last season.) The loss in Wednesday's 1 Wrong Price was the 200th time a Pricing Game was not fully won this season. (If you exclude the 2 $10,000+ wins in Plinko, then the 200th loss of the season was Bargain Game on Tuesday.) Also on Wednesday, Julia failed to win an "X" in Secret "X". Last time that's happened: April 21, 2011 (19 playings ago). In Thursday's fourth one bid, there was a double overbid. Last time that's happened: November 1, 2011. How times have changed. In Season 34, there were 10 aired double overbids. There have only been 12 aired double overbids in all seasons combined since then (including one triple overbid). Also on Thursday, Range Game was played for a car worth $13,920. Last time a Pricing Game was played for a car under $14,000: Pass the Buck on October 26, 2010 (a $13,810 Accent) (Excluding Thursday's Chevrolet Spark, the cheapest car offered in a Pricing Game during Seasons 40 and 41 was a $14,955 Hyundai Accent in Spelling Bee on November 8, 2011 - the only time a car worth less than $15,000 was offered.) Still on Thursday, Hatea failed to get a single number right in Cover Up, so the game ended in a loss after only one try. It seems the last time that's happened was on November 27, 1996. (Thanks to Corey Law for this information.) There have been 15 perfect bids in the one bids so far this season. At that pace, Drew will hand over the $500 wad 49 times by the end of the season, which would be the most perfect bids in the past twelve seasons. (Current high: 44 in Season 36)

Comments for the Week of December 24-28

Biggest winner this week: Daniel LeClaire ($37,769) (December 24) Pricing Game winning/losing streaks snapped: Switch? - the game had been won 5 straight times (4 based on actual airdates) - the game had last been lost on October 4 One Away - the game had been lost 6 straight times - the game had last been won on October 24 On Monday, Coming or Going was played third, becoming the third Pricing Game this season to be played in all six slots at least once (joining Push Over and 1 Wrong Price). On Wednesday, Susan priced two small prizes correctly in Cliff Hangers. Last time that's happened: January 6, 2012. (For what it's worth, the last perfect playing was over ten years ago - on June 4, 2002.) Also on Wednesday, Side by Side was lost for the sixth time this season, dropping its overall record to 4-6. If that holds, this will be the first season since at least Season 29 where Side by Side will finish with an overall winning percentage below .500. Pathfinder was played for the seventh time this season on Friday. It's currently on pace to be played 21 times this season, which would be the most playings since Season 24. (It's been average 11 playings in the past 10 seasons.) Scott's total winnings on Friday was $24,004. That's the lowest total among all Showcase winners so far this season. A product manufactured by Apple was not offered on any of the four new episodes that aired this week. Prior to this week, 72% of episodes this season featured at least one Apple product. The Big Wheel has been fairly hot this season, giving away $120,000 in bonuses (including 2 $11,000 wins and 3 $26,000 wins). In fact, almost as much cash has been won in the Showcase Showdowns this season than in the six cash games combined ($10,140 in Grand Game, $22,000 in 1/2 Off, $14,000 in It's in the Bag, $10,000 in Pay the Rent, $53,700 in Plinko, $33,250 in Punch a Bunch = $143,090). Average retail value of the 16 "holiday gift ideas" featured on the Price is Right this December: $1,225. Most expensive "holiday gift idea": Bull barbecue ($2,800 on December 18)

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