How Does The Price is Right's 'Perfect Bid' Coup Rank Among Game Shows' Greatest Scandals?
The Price is Right is more than a game show. It's one of our richest traditions, an Easter-colored riot of sound effects, Plinko chips, Jenny-O products, Barker's Beauties, and importance. We need its aggressively nostalgic appeal for sustenance, and our kids need its Jiffy Pop-sponsored comfort for sick days. But a new Esquire article sheds light on recent contestant Terry Kniess's perfect showcase bid and casts some doubt (and a little applause) on the staggering perfection with which he bid $23,743 on a karaoke machine, pool table, and camper. Impressive, yes, but did jilted ex-producer Roger Dobkowitz clue in Kniess on the price? Instead of figuring out this mess, we're ranking Kniess's perfect bid as one of the five biggest game show scandals in history. Is it the biggest one ever? Join us for a historical rundown of the greatest game show scandals, hoaxes, and mysteries.
5. Our Little Genius
The Fox prodigy series never hit the air, but the network's ominous statement about needing to re-shoot the series to protect its "integrity" last January was alarming. When it was revealed that producers tried providing contestants with answers they "needed to know" prior to taping, something dubious was officially afoot. So far Genius hasn't graced our airwaves, but the knowledge that contestant tampering can still occur in 2010 upsets the purist gaming community.
4. The Price is Right Perfect Bid
The jury is out on whether Terry cheated everything Rod Roddy stood for, but his alibi is fishy. Why, after adding all the actual prize prices together, would you arbitrarily throw your PIN number on the end of your showcase bid? In his defense, it can be said that even if Terry did "cheat," he couldn't have gamed the preceding Big Wheel round or his entrance into Contestant's Row. There are lots of confounding factors -- but that unsettling firing of a perhaps-jilted Price is Right producer right beforehand is sinister. At any rate, that showcase was so thrilling that we ranked it as the second best game show moment of the past decade. (Ken Jennings earned the gold medal.)
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Comments
Don't you think if that Price is Right moment was real, Drew would have been more thrilled for the guy? And the contestant's "What? What?" didn't exactly seem genuine either. Cheatery, nonsense and tomfoolery says I!
Have you seen Drew host this show? The guy is the living dead on this thing. That was "thrilled".
In the article, Drew Carey says he thought the guy was cheating. I believe that people can know the price of a karaoke machine, but an exact bid that ends in a 3? It's too bizarre.
If your gonna cheat at least make it look real an exact bid I'm sure
Oh my God! Arlene Francis! I mean, this article was great too, but I used to DVR the shit out of What's My Line when it was on Game Show Network. Mostly because I coveted 98% of what she was wearing.
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Some guy mysteriously picked 5 random numbers and won the Powerball a week ago. What are the odds that he actually guessed it? One in a billion? He must have cheated!
I played " TPIR" on Nintendo DS and that was the exact showcase and price on the game . We bought that game over a year ago.