LEFT: Todd Newton hosts the live touring version of “The Price Is Right” at MGM National Harbor in November. (Not that one, although that Sandler memorably cast Barker in “Happy Gilmore.”) “No matter your walk of life, you know the price of things.” It’s mashed potatoes,” director Adam Sandler says. But so many other features are legacy: the theme song, sort of anodyne Herb Alpert the manila price-tag name stickers the tagline “Come on down!” exhorted by dapper announcer George Gray, the show’s fourth. Sure, there are 77 different games, special weeks and fresh models (the latest, former Ravens wide receiver Devin Goda, spends this episode largely shirtless in the freezing theater). “We used to give away grandfather clocks.” Now, for an audience fluent in the Esperanto of designer flash, the show highlights Louboutins, Jimmy Choos and, during Dream Car Week, a Maserati. (Jenna Schoenefeld/For The Washington Post)Ĭhange is tectonic on “The Price Is Right.” Asked what’s different since she joined the show, Reynolds pauses. He loves the show because it’s predictable in its format (nine contestants, three acts) yet unpredictable in its outcome, because prizes can be massive, the largest payout being $213,876 during Big Money Week in 2016.Īudience members cheer during a taping at CBS Television City in Los Angeles last month. I know a nonprofit director with two master’s degrees who watches it to unwind nightly. Homegrown versions air in 42 countries and territories, including Morocco, Nigeria and Pakistan. It’s on all the time in plenty of places. “Every time you were home from school, it was on,” Young says. It’s an heirloom program, passed down through generations. “It has gotten so many people through a rough time.”Ĭontestant Kyland Young, 27, a Los Angeles marketing manager, watches because his grandmother watches. “We are ingrained in the American culture,” says Rachel Reynolds, the doyenne of the show’s five models, celebrating her 16th year of sporting skimpy attire while gesturing toward cars and outdoor furniture sets. Whether it’s through episodes (often recorded for evening viewing) or online forums, in line for a taping or at the live touring show, ardent fans relish the fantasy that knowing the price of ordinary goods can deliver wealth and untold splendor. The show’s success is anchored on delivering two American dreams simultaneously: face time on national television and scoring gobs of aspirational stuff for doing next to nothing. Who knew such joy could be derived from guessing the price of a can of Progresso chicken noodle soup? ($2.69) For more than 5 million daily viewers, “The Price Is Right” is their happy hour. (Jenna Schoenefeld/For The Washington Post)
RIGHT: Cue cards are given a final review before the show.
LEFT: The studio floor gets a sweeping before a taping.
TOP: Drew Carey checks his look in his dressing room before beginning a taping of “The Price Is Right” in Los Angeles last month.