Shell Game (pricing game)

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Host Bob Barker and a contestant standing next to Shell Game's current set

This article deals with the pricing game. For the con game, please see Shell game.

Shell Game is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. Debuting on June 17, 1974, it is played for a four-digit prize worth more than $2,000, and uses small prizes.

[edit] Gameplay

Shell Game is based on the carnival game of the same name. Host Bob Barker hides a ball beneath one of four shells, then shuffles them on a table.

The contestant is then shown four small prizes, one at a time. Each prize bears a false price. The contestant guesses whether the actual price is higher or lower than the one shown. A correct answer wins the prize and allows the player to place a red chip beside one of the shells; the idea is to mark the shell that conceals the ball.

After all four prize questions are played, Barker then removes each shell, one at a time. If one of the marked shells contains the ball, the contestant wins.

Two special cases:

If the player misses all of the prize questions, the game automatically ends in a loss.
Should the player be right about all four questions, the bonus prize is automatically won. However, the contestant can win an extra $500 by guessing which shell conceals the ball. An incorrect decision at this point does not result in loss of the bonus prize.

[edit] Trivia

In the later days of the Tom Kennedy syndicated run, the amount of the "four-correct" bonus was changed to $1,000; this was also the amount of the bonus on the 1970s nighttime run. On at least one Kennedy playing, the contestant also received the bonus automatically without having to find the ball.

Shell Game's current set debuted on March 6, 2001.

This is one of the few pricing games where host Bob actually interacts with the props, and the only one where he knows before the game ends whether or not the contestant has won.

Shell Game is one of four games where a player's actions resulted in an unfair advantage. The contestant, rather than place the chip beside a shell, tried to put a chip under one of the shells. This revealed that there was no ball under it. However, she tried making up for her mistake by actually placing the chip in front of that shell, sparking further ridicule from Bob. Bob then told her, "you cheated and you got away with it!" and made her move the chip to another shell. She then proceded to win two more chips, leading to an obvious win. Bob made considerable light of the situation, telling her before revealing the last empty shell, "you've ruined my game. This would be exciting -- but everybody knows the damn thing's not there!" The other three games that have been exploited, intentionally or not, are 3 Strikes, Flip Flop, and Pathfinder.