'Price is Right' contestant wins big with just seconds to spare in one of the most iconic TV moments
"The Price is Right" may seem like all fun and games, but it is highly competitive with big prizes at stake that make wins exciting and losses equally brutal. However, the only guarantee during the show is that the energy will remain high and games will keep fans on the edge of their seats. While there are some easy-to-win classics like Flip Flop, there are a few contests that are on the tougher side. One of those is "The Clock Game," which thoroughly tests a player's pricing skills under extreme pressure. In one episode, a contestant named Jerome nearly cracked under pressure before acing the game to win big.
Introducing the contestant, Carey asked the show's announcer to reveal the prizes that Jerome would be playing for. Gray presented a package that included a lazy chair and an Xbox 360 plus a Sony Playstation along with a bunch of games. The bonus prize for the round was a brand-new TV. Carey then explained that the contestant would be playing "The Clock Game." In the game, the contestant is given 30 seconds to guess the price of two prizes, one at a time. No other hint is given to the player to make the guesses, which makes the game difficult. However, the host does help out by telling the player to go higher or lower after every wrong guess.
When the contestant gets one item right, the clock is stopped for a break. The clock resumes as soon as the player makes an attempt to guess the price of the second item. If the player successfully gets the prices of both items right within 30 seconds, they win all three prizes plus $1000 as a bonus. If they get just one item right, they win a single prize, and if they fail to get the price of any prize right, they lose everything.
Before Jerome's game started, Carey explained to him that they needed to work together to win it, and Jerome had to be as clear as possible to communicate the answers. "Don't mumble like I do," Carey joked. The player kicked off the game well by guessing the price of the chair to be $300, which was off by about $249 from the actual retail price. Carey told him to go higher, and Jerome went conservative and kept circling around the price. Given that it was a weird number, Jerome had a hard time getting to $549. However, with just over 5 seconds left, he got the guess right.
Carey stopped the game and asked the player to take a breather. "You were right around there all the time," Carey said. He then asked the player to think about the next bunch of items carefully before requesting the presenter to explain the items again. This time, Jerome started the game with a great guess of $800, which was only $30 higher than the actual retail price.
Carey told the player to go lower, and he went right close to the target, saying $750. He went on to make a few more guesses before getting it bang on at $770 with just a millisecond left on the clock. "Man! He wins the game and the bonus prizes!" Carey exclaimed in the end.
