'Price is Right' contestant loses almost $14,000 in what many fans call a brutally hard game
The game was an incredibly difficult one to be fully successful in. One instance of hesitance can cost thousands
Jan. 12 2026, Published 5:32 a.m. ET
Not all games on “The Price Is Right” are loved by fans; some are subject to a lot of criticism. That is what happened in a recent episode of the show as fans were left disappointed after a contestant lost close to $14,000. She had a chance to win $20,000, but the structure of the game forced her to walk away with only a little over $6,000. The game, however, was exciting to watch.
The contestant was a woman named Maya, who had made her way to the stage from Contestant’s Row. She was playing the game Time Is Money to win $20,000. The rules of the game are simple. A contestant will have to correctly guess the prices of five small grocery items. In Maya’s case, the items were condensed milk, an organic protein bar, a box of Spanish rice, Frizz hair serum, and Irish butter with olive oil.
Three tables were placed on the stage with varying price ranges: $0-2.99, $3-5.99, and $6 and above. The contestant had to place the items in the correct order to win the big prize. However, she only had 10 seconds to do so. Maya took the items and ran to the tables. She placed the items as the clock ticked down and made a last-second switch. “Last minute, switcharoo. Let’s find out if that hurts her or helps her,” host Drew Carey said.
The buzzer eventually sounded, meaning that the contestant did not get it right. However, the showrunners knew that this was a tough game and decided to give her a second chance. This time, the prize money would start counting down from $20,000 to 0. If the contestant gets the order of the products right, she will win whatever amount was displayed on the screen at that time.
It is important to note that the money doesn’t go down at a slow pace. A few seconds of hesitation could cost you thousands. Maya might not have realized that at one point, as she looked to the audience for quite a while and lost more than $5,000. “She just lost $5,000, $6,000,” Carey said at the time. She was finally able to get the order right when the prize money was at $6,360.
That was the amount she won. Maya seemed quite happy about it, but fans of the show were not. "I wish they'd put the button closer to the grocery items for this game. Too much time is spent racing back and forth,” one fan wrote in the comments section on YouTube. “Better than nothing - most contestants flame out completely with this pricing game,” quipped another. “The fact that someone won anything in Time is Money is always a win, good for Maya, $6000 is nothing to (be) sneezed at,” a third user commented.
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