Comments for the Weeks of September 21-25 & September 28-October 2
Biggest winners so far this season:
Nicole Butler ($102,839) (October 1) - Nicole is the 10th biggest winner in daytime history and is the 12th contestant to win more than $100,000.
Lauren Lumpkin ($70,926) (September 22)
Imogene Tonneses ($57,739) (September 29)
Nicole's win has pushed Danielle Torre's $88,865 win from 1992 outside of the Top 20. That means that the top 20 biggest wins have now all occurred within the past 11 years.
Based on the available information, Grocery Game was played for the 1,000th time in daytime on the September 22 episode. Grocery Game is the 13th Pricing Game in daytime history to reach 1,000 appearances.
It will be several seasons (ie: more than five years) before a 14th Pricing Game will reach 1,000 playings. After Grocery Game, the games closest to 1000 are Race Game (912), Card Game (887) and Safe Crackers (850).
Previous time the games played on September 21 were played on a season premiere:
Any Number: Season 43
Bonus Game: Season 17
Double Prices: Season 40
Grocery Game: Season 42
Squeeze Play: Season 39
Cliff Hangers: Season 43
For the first time since the Season 17 premiere (Golden Road, Now or Then, 1 Right Price, Take Two, Bonus Game, 3 Strikes), a cash game was not played on the season premiere episode.
On September 24, Meagan was $265 away from the actual retail price of her Showcase, which is the closest bid to a Double Showcase win in the past five seasons since a $266 difference on November 5, 2013.
On September 29, Magic # was lost with a $3,289 difference between both prizes. That was the largest spread in a loss in this game's history. The previous high was a $2,956 spread of on the May 2, 2014 episode.
Also on September 29, the $2.00 card was found in Pocket ¢hange for the first time since October 25, 2011.
While 1 Right Price ended Season 43 on an eleven game winning streak, it was unable to carry forward this good fortune into Season 44. 1 Right Price was lost for the first time since February 19 on the October 1 episode.
In the October 1 Pay the Rent win, there was eight possible solutions. That was the fewest solutions ever in a game of Pay the Rent that resulted in a win (in the other two wins, there was ten and fourteen solutions). It was also the first time Pay the Rent was won when placing the grocery products in order from the least to the most expensive was not one of the correct solutions.
Overall, $166,289 was won on the October 1 episode, which is the tenth highest daily total in daytime history.
On October 2, Vanessa won the first Showcase Showdown with a score of 5 cents (because the first two spinners went over). Last time that's happened: May 23, 2014.
Hole #43 was selected in Punch a Bunch for the first time since June 27, 2013 (it only contained $250 in that episode).
The contestant at the yellow podium failed to win a one bid in four out of the five episodes that aired during the week of September 28-October 2.
Comments for the Week of October 5-9
Biggest winner this week: Sheridan Fidelman ($39,338) (October 5)
For the second straight season, Card Game saved us from a car game skunking. Like in the week of October 20-24 in Season 43, Card Game was the only car game won this week.
On Monday, Robert won Range Game by $1 or $0 (the right price was at the edge of the range finder). Other close Range Game wins in recent seasons: October 5, 2010, April 12, 2012, April 17, 2013.
On Wednesday, Secret "X" was lost for the first time since April 3, 2015, which snapped a five game winning streak for this game. It also snapped a streak of seven straight wins when the Secret "X" was placed in the middle row.
The second Showcase on Wednesday's episode, worth $50,396, was only the third Showcase to exceed $50,000 in value since the start of Season 42. (Out of those three, only the $51,655 Showcase offered on July 4, 2014 was won.)
Overall, six trips were offered on Wednesday's episode (2 in Bargain Game and 2 in both Showcases), which is the most trips offered in one episode since January 6, 2014.
On Friday, Ossniha wound up being $2,050 away from the target of $6,500 in Shopping Spree (by picking the three least expensive prizes). That was one of the biggest misses in the game's history, but it wasn't record breaking. Since Season 32, contestants were further away from the target on the October 28, 2004 ($2,150) and December 12, 2014 ($2,503) episodes.
While 10 contestants have bid $1 in the one bid rounds so far this season, all 10 of these contestants failed to win the prize with that bid. By comparison, 30% of contestants bidding $1 wound up winning last season.
Six Pricing Games (+ Step Up?) have yet to be played this season. Previous time it took more than three weeks for these games to show up for the first time:
Golden Road (Season 40 - not played until week 8)
Hi Lo (Season 42 - not played until week 5)
Pick-a-Pair (Season 41 - not played until week 4)
Shell Game (Season 43 - not played until week 4)
Switcheroo (Season 43 - not played until week 4)
Triple Play (Season 43 - not played until week 8)
Comments for the Week of October 12-16
Biggest winners this week:
Sherrie Irving ($107,995) (October 16) - Sherrie is the 8th biggest winner in daytime history. Sherrie is also the 7th contestant in daytime history to win $100,000+ in cash. (The $105,000 won by Sherrie is the most cash ever won by a single contestant.)
Marissa Flinders ($93,624) (October 12) - Marissa is the 18th biggest winner in daytime history.
John Mertz ($55,447) (October 14)
$747,860 was won this week, which is almost certainly the most won in a 5-day in daytime history.
Marissa and Sherrie also became the 19th and 20th contestants in daytime history to win at least $90,000 in cash and prizes.
Surprisingly, while most of the Pricing Games played this week offered more expensive prizes than usual, no new records were set in terms of the value of prizes offered (besides, of course, playing Shell Game and Let 'em Roll for $100,000.)
Overall, $1,560,000 in cash was offered in the six Pricing Games played for cash this week (excluding the $5,000 bonuses). Contestants won $164,100 in these six games, or 10.5% of the total cash offered. Here is how these results compare to previous seasons:
Season
Won
Offered
% Won
41
$103,600
$950,000
10.91%
42
$132,000
$1,350,000
9.78%
43
$200,600
$1,550,000
12.90%
44
$164,100
$1,560,000
10.52%
Tuesday
Alejandro became the first contestant to win a one bid after bidding $1. The previous 11 $1 bidders all failed to win the prize.
Wednesday
Combined, the six one bids offered totalled $17,922. That's the most expensive one bid total for one episode since June 19, 2009 ($18,484).
Thursday
Three contestants won more than $30,000: Mary ($39,722), Evelina ($31,904) and Lindsey ($30,483). Previous time there was three $30,000+ winners in one episode: December 30, 2013.
The $4,768 trip to Las Vegas was the most expensive prize offered in a one bid since a $5,434 trip to Harrisburg was offered on the December 23, 2010 episode.
The 15 cans of Chef Boyardee purchased in Grocery Game was the biggest single product purchase since 16 cans of Campbell's soup were purchased on the January 4, 2012 episode. However, both of these instances pale in comparison to the 25 cans of Bruce's yams that were purchased on the April 24, 2004 Million Dollar Spectacular. (For the record, all three of these games were lost.)
By winning $2,100, Mary has set the record for the most won in Plinko during a "Big Money Week" episode. Congratulations! (The previous high was $2,000 in Big Money Week from Season 42.)
Friday
$192,257 in cash and prizes was won on this episode, which is the seventh biggest day in daytime history.
Let 'em Roll was played fourth for the first time since February 23, 2009.
Comments for the Week of October 19-23
Biggest winner this week: Brandy Grant ($50,712) - Brandy is the eighth $50,000+ winner this season.
On Monday, both of the numbers picked by Tonya in 2 for the Price of 1 wound up being wrong. Last time that's happened: May 10, 2012 (26 playings ago).
Both of the car games played on Monday's episode wound up being the only two Pricing Games that were won (Five Price Tags and Money Game). That happened two times last season, and in both instances a luxury car was won in one of the games: December 23, 2014 (Golden Road for a Mercedes and Pass the Buck) and October 16, 2014 (One Away for a Tesla and Dice Game).
Contestants have now made it to the final prize in Golden Road in 10 out of its last 12 appearances. Sadly, Giselle from the December 23, 2014 playing was the only contestant in these 10 episodes that went on to win the final prize.
On Thursday, Mercedes became the 10th non-Showcase winning contestant this season to win at least $30,000. By comparison, this only happened five times in all of Season 43. (Last week's $5,000 bonus for a winning a Pricing Game has obviously helped boost this season's total.)
On Friday, Race Game was not fully won for the first time since December 10, 2014. That snapped a streak of eight straight times where all four prizes were won. The game had also been won in one or two tries in 7 out of the 8 wins during this streak.
Despite winning a combined 19 chips, no one has managed to land a Plinko chip in the $10,000 slot so far this season. (The streak extends to 23 chips if you include the end of Season 43.) Since Season 30, the longest streak of futility to start a season is Season 33 where the first 33 chips dropped all landed in amounts other than $10,000. It took until the seventh playing of the season for a contestant to win $10,000. (After that, at least $10,000 was won in 14 out of the season's remaining 25 playings.)
It has now been a full calendar year (October 17, 2014) since Step Up has been played. Will Aaron Ernest go down in the history books as the last contestant to outright win this game?
Hi Lo is one of two games (along with Triple Play) that have not been played so far this season. Between Seasons 34 and 43, Hi Lo always appeared at least once in the first 25 episodes. However, in Season 33, Hi Lo did not appear until the 31st episode.
Comments for the Week of October 26-30
Biggest winners this week: "Drew Carey" - $64,546 (October 30) and Jed Dyal - $55,097 (October 29)
Pricing Games are off to a winning start this season with 49.4% of them being fully won (89/180). The last time the win rate exceeded 49% was Season 33 (518/1050 = 49.3%).
41.67% of Pricing Games played for cars have also been won so far this season (25/60), which would be the best win rate for car games since Season 36 (161/384 = 41.9%).
Contestants have now putted from one of the three furthest lines from the hole in each of the past 16 playings of Hole in One. November 19, 2013 was the last time a contestant putted from one of the three closest lines.
Several Pricing Game winning or losing streaks ended on Tuesday's episode:
That's Too Much! snapped a six game losing streak dating back to June 8, 2015, including 3 straight losses to start this season.
Bullseye was lost for the first time since April 2, 2014, snapping a 16 game winning streak. That ended the longest winning streak since Bullseye was won 20 straight times between January 22, 2007 and December 2, 2008. (The second longest streak during this span was Pick-a-Pair with 15 straight wins in Seasons 39 and 40.)
Side By Side was lost for the first time since June 5, 2015, ending a five game winning streak including three straight wins to start this season.
That's Too Much! wound up being the only Pricing Game that was fully won on Tuesday's episode. This was the first time in its history where That's Too Much! prevented a winless show. (Unless you include the March 26, 2010 episode, where the only other game won besides That's Too Much! was a $12,000 Plinko partial win.)
On Wednesday, the car was won in Temptation for the first time since November 3, 2014, which snapped a seven game losing streak for this game. It was also only the third time since the start of Season 32 where a contestant changed the price to the right price of the car. (It also happened on January 10, 2012 and November 3, 2014 - the game's last win.)
Wednesday was also the 800th daytime playing of Temptation. Temptation is the 20th Pricing Game to be played at least 800 times.
Also on Wednesday, James rolled three exact numbers in Dice Game. Last time that's happened: November 5, 2004. (October 10, 1996 is believed to be the last time a contestant rolled all four numbers.)
Wednesday's episode also wound up being the first instance this season where the contestant at the red podium failed to win a one bid.
Lucky $even is off to a rough start this season. The game is 0-4 and all four contestants could not even get to the fifth number before they ran out of money.
On Thursday, Any Number was played fourth for the first time since August 15, 2013.
The $61,466 Showcase, offered on Friday's episode, was the most expensive Showcase since a $66,996 Showcase was offered on the December 31, 2012 episode. It was also the most expensive Showcase won since a $62,854 showcase was won on the October 5, 2010 episode.
Friday's "Then" products, Campbell's cream of mushroom soup (three times) and Little Debbie swiss cake rolls(once) did, in fact, appear on the Price is Right on episodes airing in October 2007.
