Each episode of The Price Is Right features an undisclosed assortment of games, and that variety is part of its mass appeal. However, fans think it’s due time to either retire or change one segment in particular: the Time is Money game, which just saw a contestant come up very short — and short on breath.
The Time is Money game is worth a maximum of $20,000 and is a staple of the game show despite being long branded as “impossible.” A player is shown five grocery items and then has just ten seconds to place each item on three shelves based on their prices. If they do so correctly, they win. If not (usually the case), there’s a redemption opportunity: they get 40 more seconds to rearrange the items correctly, with the prize pot decreasing every second. With each new guess, they must race over to a buzzer on side-stage to lock it in, the prize pot whittling away. If they can lock in the correct prices in 40 seconds, they get whatever’s left in the prize pot.
On Wednesday November 27’s episode, a truck driver named Stevan had a disastrous experience with the game. He was incorrect in round one, and unable to even place all of the items down in time. “Well, you didn’t get it because you have three in your hands still,” Drew Carey told him. Stevan entered the second chance portion, unsure if any of the ones he did place were correct.
The 40-second clock began on Stevan’s second chance, and sped around the set, rearranging the items and smashing the buzzer. But it was to no avail; after five incorrect rearrangements, the prize pot dropped down to $0.
“Oh man, sorry buddy you really tried,” Carey told an exhausted Stevan who was left huffing and puffing, hands clasping his knees. Correctly placing the items just for show, Carey, admitted, “I would have lost that one!”
After the morose misfire aired, a fan took to the TPIR Reddit forum dedicating a post to railing against the game’s difficulty level and asking producers to extend the time limit of the first round.
“God, I despise this game,” they began. “I imagine the producers and CBS love it, though; they’re almost guaranteed to save $20,000 of their budget when it’s played. Yes, I’m well aware that the full $20,000 has been won several times, but it’s still such a depressing game to watch when nine times out of 10, you know it’s gonna be lost.” They added, “What, if anything, do you reckon would be a good strategy to improve one’s odds of winning the game? Seeing as the second chance round is I believe 40 seconds, why can’t the first round be 20 seconds?”
“I love this game but people seldom play it wisely,” one fan replied. “The fellow playing it today did not think. He just threw things back-and-forth hoping to win by chance.”
“And he was looking at the audience! There’s no time for that,” wrote a third agreeing it was on the player.
However, the majority of commenters agreed that the game is too difficult as it stands and the timer for the first round should be extended to 15 or 20 seconds.
“I agree with the comments saying it should be 15 seconds,” a fourth fan wrote.
“For me, this game has many issues,” wrote a fifth. “First of all, it assumes agility. I don’t like seeing the contestant huffing and puffing at the end. What if 90 year old granny who’s been watching forever and finally gets on stage gets this game,” wrote a sixth. “Beyond that, the initial game could easily be expanded to 15 seconds.”
“To be fair, that guy had no clue how to price any of those items. But yeah, it’s a dumb game,” wrote an additional fan.
“I wouldn’t shed a tear if they retired this game. And take Three Strikes with it,” wrote a sixth.
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“This game is trash. Everyone knows it. Get rid of it,” tore one more. “Not enjoyable at all to watch knowing the contestant has 0 chance. Not enough time to even gather the stuff and place it on the podium the first time. I legitimately can not believe that the producers and people who made this game actually think it’s enjoyable in anyway.”
What do you think of the Time is Money game? Would more time entail more money for the huffing and puffing players tasked with taking it on? Let us know in the comments!
The Price Is Right, Weekdays, 11am ET/10am PT, CBS
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