The New Price is Right (U.S. Syndicated game show)

The New Price Is Right is a syndicated edition of the American game show The Price Is Right. The New Price Is Right was the fourth attempt at a syndicated edition of the CBS daytime show, preceded by a weekly series that ran concurrently with the daytime series from 1972 until 1980 and a daily series that aired from 1985 until 1986. A third attempt was made in 1994, with Doug Davidson as host, but that version lasted until January 1995. Like the first two series,The New Price Is Right was thirty minutes in length as opposed to its parent series, which has been sixty minutes in length since 1975. Another similarity it shared with its predecessors in syndication was an increase in the prize budget as opposed to the daytime series. Despite the similarities, Just as the plan was for the 1994 version, The New Price Is Right is designed to not be a strict copy of its parent series; to this effect, several changes were made to distinguish the series from the daytime Price Is Right. Todd Newton, who has toured North America as host of The Price Is Right Live!, an interactive theatrical production of the television game show, is the host. Ironically, Newton was going to be the host of the daytime version when Bob Barker retired in 2007, but CBS instead wanted Drew Carey to host. The current version was launched in 2014. The current version is produced by FremantleMedia, with distribution done by Debmar-Mercury.

Format
The New Price Is Right differed greatly from its parent show in several ways. The entire concept, which had not been radically modified since 1975, was given a significant update in an attempt to appeal to a younger generation.

There was also a larger prize budget for The New Price Is Right as there had been in the previous syndicated series. This series took it a step further than its predecessors had and not only applied it to the prizes up for grabs but also to the pricing games themselves; in games like Hole in One, which featured the contestants trying to correctly price grocery items, the show replaced the grocery items with merchandise prizes that were worth significantly more. Furthermore, The New Price Is Right did not limit itself to American-made cars in games that offered them like the daytime series was at the time.

One of the most significant changes involved the selection of contestants. Previous syndicated series began similarly to the daytime version, with four contestants being called to Contestants' Row to compete in a One Bid game, with the winner playing a pricing game on stage. The New Price Is Right conducted the proceedings differently. Each contestant called from the audience immediately came onstage to play a pricing game. Three pricing games were played per episode along with a Showcase Showdown.

Pricing Game Rule Changes
Some pricing games on The New Price Is Right were played with slight modifications to the rules as played on the daytime version. Games which usually featured grocery products (i.e., Grand Game and Hole in One) were played using prizes generally valued less than $400 instead, and some games featured other rule changes.
 * Clock Game: The game was digitized, with no prop on stage for it, and the contestant was provided a $1,000 range in which to guess the price of each prize. The game frequently used prizes with four-digit prices. On some occasions a third prize was awarded as a bonus for winning (a rule change which was adopted on the daytime version in 2009).
 * Hole in One: When an item was chosen, its price was immediately revealed and then placed in line if it was higher than the previous prize chosen. On the daytime version, the price flags are arranged in line according to the contestant's choice before the prices are revealed.
 * Plinko: While the top prize remained the same at $5,000 per chip for a potential total of $25,000, two configurations of slots were utilized (one of which featured two $2,500 slots). The method of earning chips was also changed to a higher/lower pricing format with smaller prizes worth up to $400.
 * 3 Strikes: The first number was lit at the beginning of the game and the number could repeat elsewhere in the price. Four chips representing the remaining numbers in the price were then placed into the bag with three strike chips.

Showcase Showdown
The New Price Is Right became the second half-hour Price Is Right series (following the 1994 version) to employ the Showcase Showdown to determine who would play for the Showcase at the end of the show. In the previous two syndicated editions, as well as on the daytime series before it expanded to sixty minutes, the two contestants who had won the most in their One Bids and pricing games automatically advanced to the Showcase.

However, lending to the overall theme of change that was present throughout the series, the production staff of The New Price Is Right conducted their Showcase Showdown in a much different manner.

The Price Was Right
The most frequently featured Showcase Showdown game was called "The Price Was Right", a modification of the One Bid featured on the daytime show.

The three contestants stood behind three lecterns at the foot of the stage (a modified Contestants' Row). Davidson introduced a vintage television commercial and provided the year the commercial aired. The three contestants then bid on what they thought the product advertised would have cost in the given year. After all three contestants made their bids, the price of the product was revealed and the closest to the actual price won the game and advanced to the Showcase.

Although it rarely happened, if all the contestants overbid, the same One Bid overbid rules applied. The bids would be erased and the contestants would be instructed to bid less than the lowest overbid amount. There was no bonus paid for an exact bid.

The Big Wheel
The version also uses the traditional Showcase Showdown where the contestants spun The Big Wheel.

The contestants spun in order from highest to lowest winnings, as opposed to the daytime series which did the opposite, and the object remained to get as close to one dollar without going over. Reaching one dollar exactly still rewarded a player with $1,000 and a bonus spin for a chance at $25,000 more.

The Showcase
The New Price Is Right is the only edition of the American series to feature a single player instead of two in the Showcase, following the 1994 version. A single Showcase was offered, and the winner of the Showcase Showdown played a modified version of the pricing game Range Game to try and win it.

During the commercial break before the presentation of the Showcase, the contestant chose one of seven values at random, which ranged from $4,000 to $10,000 in $1,000 increments. After the Showcase was presented, a gameboard was revealed displaying a range of values from $10,000 to $70,000. The contestant's chosen range was announced, and a rangefinder covering that amount was placed at the bottom of the gameboard. The rangefinder then started climbing up the board, and the contestant pulled a lever to stop it when he or she believed that the total value of the Showcase was within the range. The value of the Showcase was then revealed. If it fell within the range, the contestant won the Showcase in addition to any other prizes he or she had won to that point.