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The Price Is Right has been a morning TV staple for decades — and the iconic game show has had its fair share of hijinks (and scandals) over the years.
Former longtime host Bob Barker made a rookie mistake during a 1984 episode accidentally telling a contestant named Albert the correct answer before the game was even finished. While playing Pick-A-Pair, Albert was tasked with figuring out which products cost the same price as a can of chili, which ran for $1.59 at the time. On his first attempt, he incorrectly guessed.
“Do you know which one of them is $1.59? The raisins,” Barker — who began hosting the game show in 1972 — said, not realizing his blunder. “The raisins are $1.59. Do you know how I know they’re $1.59?”
After realizing his mistake, Barker stopped himself and laughed, noting that Albert should have a “pretty good chance of winning” now, which made the audience chuckle.
“Don’t stand there and laugh at me,” he quipped. “I’m making a fool of myself, Albert. I’ve been here for all these years, playing this game. You know it well enough, you knew that I was goofing.”
After Barker retired in 2007, Drew Carey was named his successor to the game show. In his second season of hosting, the former Whose Line Is It Anyway? host was faced with a near-scandal that never aired.
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In the game of Plinko, contestants try to drop chips down a maze-like board, hoping to land them in the coveted $10,000 slot. While appearing on SiriusXM’s Jeff and Larry’s Comedy Roundup show in February 2021, the Drew Carey Show alum recalled an instance where one contestant got a little too lucky.
“There’s a college girl that got to play Plinko, and she dropped her first three chips right down in the $10,000 spot,” he said, noting that she had beaten a previous record. “People were on their feet, jumping up and down and cheering. I mean, the crowd was going wild. She dropped the fourth chip, the floor director comes over, stops the chip, and leans into me and he goes, ‘The game is fixed.’”
While Carey worried the potential scandal was going to cost him his job, he learned the snafu was an honest mistake. Before the season had begun filming, the game board was used to film a commercial for an upcoming Price Is Right-themed video game. The machine was rigged with a fishing line so the chips would land in the $10,000 spot every time.
Carey went on to explain that the contestant was awarded $30,000 behind the scenes that didn’t count towards her grand-prize total and gave her a new set of Plinko chips to try again.
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Keep scrolling to see some of the other biggest mistakes on the Price Is Right over the years:
