‘Price is Right’ fans call a game rigged after overpriced item costs a contestant $20,000

The contestant, Emily bet $10,000 on the item and ended up losing everything.

Screenshot showing Drew Carey consoling the contestant, Emily (Cover image source: YouTube/The Price Is Right)

The one thing contestants on “The Price Is Right” need to do is to guess the correct price of items. This is why fans were outraged after a seemingly overpriced item cost a contestant a big $20,000 win. The player, Emily, who was close to pulling off a stunning performance in the show’s Hot Seat game, was heartbroken after she risked it all on a ‘desk fan.’ She bet that the item would cost less than $80, which, to everyone, including the host, Drew Carey, seemed right, but everyone was in disbelief when the price was revealed to be more than that. While Emily got a chance to spin the wheel later, fans took to the comments on YouTube to express their anger.

Screenshot showing the player’s reaction to the loss (Image source: YouTube/The Price Is Right)
 

In the Hot Seat game, the contestant sits on a chair that moves left to right on a rail, stopping over at five small prizes. Each price comes with a displayed price tag, and the contestant has to guess if the actual retail price of the item is higher or lower than what is displayed. The player is given 35 seconds to lock their guesses for all the items by hitting a red button for “high” and a blue button for “low.” In the end, the seat first moves to the items that the player has got right. If a contestant gets one item right, they get $500, and the prize goes up to $2,500, $5,000, $10,000, and finally $20,000 with each correct guess. The player has the option to stop at any point if they feel they have made a wrong guess. However, if they choose to keep going and get a guess wrong, they lose everything.

Screenshot showing the set-up for the game (Image source: YouTube/The Price Is Right)
In Emily’s game, the first item was a watering can with a displayed price of $35. She guessed the actual price was lower and moved on to the next item, a desk fan with a tag of $80. She guessed the fan also cost less than the tag and it seemed correct to most.

Screenshot showing Emily playing the game (Image source: YouTube/The Price Is Right)
 

Carey then moved the player to all the items she got right. Her prize money had gone up to $10,000, and the last item left to reveal was the desk fan, which Emily guessed was priced less than $80. “Now you have one of the biggest decisions you’ll make today. Your biggest decision is whether to keep your 10,000, or if the fan is under $80, you get $20,000. If you’re wrong, you lose everything,” Carey told the player.

Screenshot showing Carey talking to the player (Image source: YouTube/The Price Is Right)
 

With great encouragement from the audience, Emily chose to go for it and risk it all. “Yeah, this honestly doesn’t look higher than 50 bucks to me,” Carey said, looking at the fan. He then flipped the tag, and it was revealed that the price of the fan was $95, higher than the displayed price tag. Thus, Emily’s guess was wrong, and she lost all the money she had collected so far.

Even the viewers at home were upset with the loss, with some calling out the show for featuring the overpriced item. “This is rigged!” alleged @jmventertainment7. ” There is no way I’m paying $95 for that fan. I bought a bigger fan than that at Canadian Tire for only around $30. If I were in her position, I would have gone for it myself and lost the $10,000. $95 plus taxes just for a tiny little fan like that one. Ridiculous,” added @mikedickerson1978.