The stay-at-home dad: A ‘Price is Right’ conspiracy theory

A ‘Price is Right’ conspiracy theory

There’s something fishy about the Big Wheel.

I recently introduced the long-running daytime game show, “The Price is Right” into my children’s at-home school schedule. There’s basic math at play, and the show offers a unique perspective on human behavior. Basically, you can learn a lot about a person just by seeing how they react to winning a toaster oven.

I grew up watching “The Price is Right.” My Grandma Rosie introduced me to Bob Barker long before I ever went to school, and, boy howdy, she knew how to watch the program. She’d cheer for the contestants, holler out prices and boo all the players who didn’t know the suggested retail price of Honey Nut Cheerios.

Over the years I’ve adopted many of my grandma’s more aggressive viewing habits. I’ve continued to watch well beyond the Bob Barker days, even growing to enjoy Drew Carey’s different approach to emcee duties. For each of my four kids, I went through long periods of tiny babies sleeping in my arms while I watched on-demand episodes of “The Price is Right.”

I’ve developed some theories through my extensive research, and I finally sought some feedback from my 8-year-old daughter, who is very interested in the rules and logistics of the various pricing games.

First of all, I want to take this opportunity to say that I’m not criticizing “The Price is Right” in any way. It’s a perfect hour of entertainment in my opinion, even down to the commercials in-between for catheters and antidepressants.

And Plinko. The whole family loves Plinko. Never change, Plinko.

Nevertheless, I think the show’s producers are pulling the strings a bit more than they want us to believe. For one thing, the show favors “Big Winners.” More often than not, the people headed to the program’s final Showcase round are people who had better luck with their initial pricing games. People with car victories or large cash prizes. The show likes to end with a big statement: “So-and-so just won more than $50,000 or whatever in cash and prizes!” That seems good, right? People like to see Big Winners. It’s more exciting! CBS and the showrunners know this, and so I think they “help along” certain contestants.

Fans already know the journey from audience member to contestant is not a random one. At a show taping, the producers conduct brief interviews with everyone entering the studio, and they purposefully choose people they think will be more entertaining to watch on television. A big personality can also get you to the final round, even if you weren’t successful in winning a big prize earlier in the show.

Now you could make the argument that luck plays out in mysterious ways. Or that good players (the folks more likely to win their pricing games) would also be more capable of continuing their success in the later rounds.

This logic falls apart somewhat in the Showcase Showdown, a.k.a., the part of the show where the contestants spin the Big Wheel.

For the uninitiated, the goal of the Showcase Showdown is to get the “number closest to a dollar without going over” by spinning a wheel featuring individual spaces with various numbers 5-100 (representing cents). Six people spin, three per segment, with each segment winner moving on to face each other in the final Showcase. Get a dollar exactly (either in one or two spins) and you win $1000, as well as a bonus spin that can net you even more money.

I think it’s rigged. Or it can be in some cases.

In my admittedly rudimentary research, I’ve noticed that “Big Winners” or “Big Personalities” perform better here, despite it being a complete game of luck. Now, the contestants do spin in the order of lowest-earner-to-highest, and there are some definitive advantages for spinning last (most obviously that the people in front of you can bust out before you ever touch the wheel).

Still, I’ve seen some things. The wheel doesn’t move consistently, even for a contestant who spins twice using the same amount of force. Some people have better luck with the arrow inching over into a more favorable segment.

I can’t prove it definitively, but it would be easy to have a crew member behind the wheel who could slightly influence the rate of spin. They know the makeup of the wheel and could manipulate small conditions in order for a preferred player to perform better. I swear I’ve seen evidence - the wheel slowing down at a sudden unusual rate, or how sometimes the planks between the individual segments become more elastic in order to manufacture a more dramatic climax.

I also think the prices of prizes can be manipulated on any games where the winning numbers are displayed on a digital screen.

Say they want Suzie to win the car priced at $21,674, but her game led her to choose the numbers $21,746. But they really like Suzie, and the episode still needs a big winner, and Suzie will probably jump on Drew and create a hilarious, exciting moment. So they just change the screen to read $21,746. Nobody is going to check if the specs on the car match the exact suggested retail price, and even if they did, nobody would cry foul if they were cheating to create more winners.

Basically, I think they cheat, but only occasionally and to help the contestants.

I explained all this to my 8-year-old during a recent episode of “The Price is Right.” Her response is exactly as follows:

“WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT!?”

Maybe I need to leave quarantine.