For a lot of people out there, appearing on a daytime game show with the possibility of taking home some spending money is a nice and feasibly attainable dream, considering how many game shows are out there airing on a daily basis. Of course, more game show contestants overall means more opportunities for such hopefuls to suffer cringe-heavy experiences in full view of millions of viewers at home, on top of everyone in the studio audience. And while such embarrassment often comes in the form of a brazenly wrong guess (or even two of them) on Wheel of Fortune or telling an awful anecdote on Jeopardy!, sometimes it just involves the act of walking from one place to the other, as one Price Is Right contestant learned the hard way.
In a moment that has since gone viral for all the relatably shame-worthy reasons, one Price Is Right hopeful followed up her Showcase Showdown efforts by failing to leave the stage in an orderly and timely fashion. Which is probably the nicest way to word what happens in the below clip from TikTok. Check it out!
@pilotboy1985 ♬ original sound - Christopher Ward
This poor, poor, poor woman. A “wait, where’s the exit?” faux pas usually lasts for a brief moment, akin to the “go right or left” dance that happens on sidewalks and in store aisles. But even edited for TV, this moment drags on for a whopping 20 confusion-laced seconds. And you KNOW that it had to feel like 20 separate eternities for the contestant as she failed to properly navigate her way around the iconic game show stage set.
And while it may sound like I’m being somewhat judgmental, please know that I share in the notion that many of the commenters had, in that this awks-as-bawls moment feels like the entirety of life encapsulated. I don’t know that I would have explicitly used “losing the ability to leave a game show” as the most apt comparison for life’s most humility-crushing foibles, but every day is a learning experience.
Let’s just break things down moment by moment, because what’s more fun that surgically inspecting someone else’s horror?
- Mistake #1: Not watching where other contestants went after their Big Wheel spins, either during that particular taping or at any point in The Price Is Right's 50-year-history.
- Mistake #2: Looking at the giant blue dollar sign set decoration and, despite presumably understanding deep down that it was made of solid, non-permeable materials, continuing to walk toward it as if it would suddenly reveal itself to actually be a hallway.
- Mistake #3: Staring outward to the wide open area of the stage and, after appearing to take a suggestion from someone off-camera, choosing not to walk in that direction, but rather back towards all the giant solid parts of the set that have still not magically taken on the form of dissipating fog.
- Mistake #4: Taking a shot to see if there was a super-secret exit in the already visible area behind the giant dollar sign.
- Mistake #5: Temporarily giving up and standing there like a deer caught cheating on a math test.
- Mistake #6: Continuing to believe that maybe, just maybe, walking back toward walls and other non-moving parts of the set will provide anything beyond more frustration.
Thankfully, the contestant was able to take her leave without further incident, and seemingly without the entire production having to shut down in order for a producer to make the “come over here” motion with his index finger. Her body language hilariously transformed into something more dejected and Charlie Brown-like, on the polar opposite side of things from Price Is Right’s most celebratory contestants. I certainly hope things only got better for her once she was out of the camera’s view, and that she didn’t have to get through any corn mazes before vacating the studio.
Host Drew Carey, who recently shared a heartwarming story about his late friend and TV icon Bob Saget, was either completely oblivious to the matter, or he was being told in his earpiece not to put any focus on the wandering nomad to his left. Now let me make my own way out of this story before I end up getting lost mysel…wait, there used to be a door here, right? No?
The Price Is Right, which continues to fool people into thinking SNL vet Adam Sandler is on the production team, airs weekdays in syndication, so check your local listings to see when and where it’s playing in your area. In the meantime, be sure to hit up our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows popping up on the small screen soon.
