# Re the guy that \*exactly\* guessed the Price is Right showcase. Was it a setup? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2009, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-guy-that-exactly-guessed-the-price-is-right-showcase-was-it-a-setup/481727 "2009-01-17T07:48:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-guy-that-exactly-guessed-the-price-is-right-showcase-was-it-a-setup/481727/1 "2009-01-17T07:48:15Z")
There seems to be a lot of suspicion online [about this win.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dYjAjOHaTc&eurl=http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=66956) The oddest thing is how amazingly blase and non-emotive the host is about the win. Did something happen off camera in this show that caused this reaction? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-guy-that-exactly-guessed-the-price-is-right-showcase-was-it-a-setup/481727/2 "2009-01-17T08:11:13Z")
Not sure how true it is [but I found this](http://www.hollywoodgrind.com/the-price-is-right-perfect-bid-scam/) which would explain his reaction. > [@](#): > > Before everybody starts bashing Drew Carey, let me give you a little insight as to why he was so not excited. There was an obsessive fan in the audience (a member of a particular TPiR fansite) who has managed to memorize just about every prize given away on the show." > > “This fan met Terry and proceeded to give him every bid for the show - Terry got his item to come up on stage exactly right, lost his pricing game (admittedly the fan’s fault), and got the perfect bid for the showcase from this particular fan.” > > “Before the showcase’s price was revealed, there was a 15-45 minute stop down. Standards & Practices wanted to review the show and its audience to make sure nothing fishy was going on. Drew was informed as to what was going on and knew Terry had made a perfect bid. In fact, according to some in the know, CBS wasn’t even going to air this episode!” > > some people might not like drew carey as host … and that’s fine. just don’t base it on this one clip. he’s bummed out because he knows his show was swindled. that sucks, and he knows it, and i would have the same reaction as him in this particular situation ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-guy-that-exactly-guessed-the-price-is-right-showcase-was-it-a-setup/481727/3 "2009-01-17T08:34:01Z")
The show was not swindled, any more than Press Your Luck was swindled by Michael Larson. The system was successfully gamed. Getting cues from the audience is part of the game for The Price Is Right, just as the board patterns were part of the game for PYL. That this contestant found an associate who could keep all the prize prices in memory, and quickly add them up (for the showdown) is no more a swindle than Larson’s memorizing the PYL patterns. Frankly, I’m surprised someone involved never saw this coming years ago. They didn’t even exploit a loophole in the rules - they played the game how it was meant to be played, they just did it better than most people could. That’s not a swindle, that’s just the show’s bad luck. (PYL improved the boards’ randomness after the Larson incident (in which the company decided he wasn’t cheating), to keep other players from doing the same. I have no idea what PIR could do to keep this from happening again, other than completely changing the way the game is played. Except maybe increase the number of prizes they use, or ones with more volatile pricing.) ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-guy-that-exactly-guessed-the-price-is-right-showcase-was-it-a-setup/481727/4 "2009-01-17T10:56:33Z")
How could someone memorize all the prices? Do they use the same items repeatedly on the show? That seems like it would be unwise. Or, was the guy some sort of savant who knew the price of everything everywhere? ---
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-guy-that-exactly-guessed-the-price-is-right-showcase-was-it-a-setup/481727/5 "2009-01-17T13:53:11Z")
> [@riker1384](#): > > How could someone memorize all the prices? Do they use the same items repeatedly on the show? That seems like it would be unwise. Or, was the guy some sort of savant who knew the price of everything everywhere? Yes, or at least they used to. They still have repeat prizes, but they absolutely learned from this lesson and will be mixing it up a bit.