'Price Is Right' host Drew Carey stunned as contestant makes the 'best showcase bid' in game history
"The Price Is Right" is known for offering grand prizes, including elephants on a couple of occasions during the decades-long run of the show. In one case, the model inadvertently even gave away a car to a contestant, who was yet to guess the correct answer. While some fail to get their numbers right, a few elite players make history. Patrice Masse became one of those by making the best showcase bid in the game's history.
The longtime game show, currently hosted by Drew Carey, features a series of games. While all of them offer prizes, the final round called the Showcase Showdown carries the biggest one.
During the round, each contestant is provided a package of prizes and they must give a total bid to win it. They have to guess the closest prize without going over and the player who does it walks away with all of their winnings.
Some of the big-ticket items featured in the round are all-expense trips, cars, hot tubs, and home furnishings. For Masse, the prize package included an espresso machine, a trip to Miami, and a brand-new Kia car. He had some pressure going in as the player before he had guessed a price that was off by just over $6,000. Thus, to win, Masse had to be closer than that. Guessing the total, he placed a bid of $39,500 on a package.
After recording the guess, Carey looked at his cards and was taken aback. He took a few steps behind and went on to build up the suspense.
"So, let me tell ya..." he began, as the crowd cheered in anticipation. The host then revealed the actual price which was "Thirty-nine thousand, five-oh-ONE," putting Masse off by just $1.
This meant that Masse was a 'Double Showcase Winner' as his answer was within $250 of the actual price. Carey went on to dub the contestant's guess as “the best showcase bid in the history of the show." He also reminded viewers that Masse had absolutely no help from the audience before making the guess.
In the end, Masse and his wife walked away with a brand new Kia K5 GT-Line, luxury trips to Milan, Italy, Hawaii, and Miami, and designer apparel from Versace, Gucci, and Coach. Talking to CTV News, Masse revealed that his win came off a fluke. He shared that he and his wife weren't expecting to become participants and were just in the audience to have some fun.
"We were sure that it took years to get tickets for the show, we didn't even dream of (it) and suddenly, Tina went online and looked at the tickets and we got tickets for the next day," Masse told the news outlet.
He further mentioned that his win was 'pure luck' as he had just blurted out the bid without making any calculations. "If you look at the whole show, my first bid was horrible, just horrible, I had no clue what I was bidding on, I had no clue what I was doing," he added.
