'Price is Right’ contestant who calls herself the ‘Original Karen’ gets blamed for her 'ugly' strategy

"The Price is Right" may be a fun game show but things do get competitive with big prizes including cash and cars at stake, pushing contestants to come up with new strategies, while host Drew Carey also suggests a few hacks. One of the most infamous strategies is the '$1' bid strategy which players use to one-up their competitors. Due to its petty nature, it's not much appreciated and recently a player named Karen was blasted on social media for employing it.

For those who don't know, for the first round of the game show, players are called down from the audience to the Contestant’s Row where they compete to win a chance to join host Drew Carey on stage and play the games. Once they are lined up, the show's announcer George Gray, and the models, present different prizes on stage. One by one the contestants make a bid for what they think the prize or prize package is worth. Whoever makes the closest bid, wins and joins Carey on stage.

Here, many contestants use the $1 bid strategy where they make a bid that is $1 more or less than the other player's bid, to deny the competitor a win and steal their spot. In the episode, players, Nader, Dena, Jarren, and Karen were called down to the Contestant's Row to make their bids. The announcer then revealed the items which were three designer watches made of stainless steel and plated with gold. The prize package also included a leather watch case.

One by one the players made their bids,  “1400,” “1100,” and “1700," before the turn went to Karen, who was wearing a t-shirt with the "The Price Is Right" logo and the text, "The Original Karen" in the show's font. 

“1701!” Karen yelled, making her bid which was just a dollar more than Jarren’s bid. This meant, that if the price of the package was above $1700, Karen would win by just a dollar over Jarren. “Wow, you really are the original Karen,” Carey quipped, pointing at the player's strategy. 

The clip was shared on the show's social media with the overlay text, “Self-proclaimed Karen pulls a Karen move 😂." Viewers in the comments blasted the player for using the petty strategy. "I despise the “one uppers” 👎🏿👎🏿👎🏿😂" @ty.brighten commented on Instagram.  "I've always disliked the one uppers. It's so rude," user @nic.tails added. 

"She REALLY ticked me off! That was really ugly what she did," remarked another user @studioacrochetandmore. 

Meanwhile, some viewers defended Karen claiming that the player's strategy was legitimate and smart. "Yass Karen!! 👏🏾👏🏾I won my showcase showdown on 4/26/2011 by getting off contestant row with a “one up” price! 🗣️”751 baby!!!” 😂," @texas.girl.for.life mentioned. "They've been doing this since the conception of the show! Stop trying to cause drama where there isn't any!" @a.m.y.marie added.