Classic Game Shows: The Price is Right (1959)

The Price Is Right is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart, Mark Goodson and Bill Todman where contestants compete by guessing the prices of merchandise to win cash and prizes. Contestants are selected from the studio audience as the announcer calls their names and invokes the show's famous catchphrase, "Come on down!"

The program premiered on September 4, 1972, on CBS. Bob Barker was the series' longest-running host from its 1972 debut until his retirement in June 2007, when Drew Carey took over. Barker was accompanied by a series of announcers, beginning with Johnny Olson, followed by Rod Roddy and Rich Fields. In April 2011, George Gray became the announcer. The show has used several models, most notably Anitra Ford, Janice Pennington, Dian Parkinson, Holly Hallstrom, and Kathleen Bradley. While retaining some elements of the original 1956 version of the show, the 1972 version has added many new distinctive gameplay elements.

The Price Is Right has aired over 9,000 episodes since its debut and is one of the longest-running network series in United States television history. In a 2007 article, TV Guide named it the "greatest game show of all time."

On March 2, 2022, it was announced that The Price is Right would be inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Host Drew Carey and executive producer Evelyn Warfel accepted the award at The Achievement in Broadcasting Awards on the NAB Show main stage in Las Vegas on April 24, 2022.

The 50th season premiered September 13, 2021.

Broadcast history:
The Price Is Right premiered on September 4, 1972 at 10:30 a.m. ET (9:30 a.m. CT) on CBS, one of three game shows to debut that day, the other two being The Joker's Wild at 10:00 a.m. ET and Gambit at 11:00 a.m. ET. The show was first billed as The New Price Is Right to distinguish itself from the earlier/original version (1956–65) hosted by Bill Cullen, but it proved so popular in its own right that, in June 1973, Goodson-Todman decided to drop the word "New" from its title. On March 26, 1973, CBS moved The Price Is Right to 3:00 p.m. ET, pairing it with Match Game as part of what became the highest-rated pairing in daytime, it ran a close second to the NBC soap opera Another World. The show remained in that time slot until August 11, 1975, when it permanently returned to the morning lineup at 10:30 a.m. ET. Over the next several years, Price would face a variety of game shows on NBC; then, as now, ABC did not program that time slot, leaving its affiliates to do it themselves.
During the week of September 8–12, 1975, The Price is Right experimented with a sixty-minute episode format, during what it called "Anniversary Week" (the third anniversary of its premiere). The Anniversary Week included a prototypical circular Showcase Showdown spinner wheel used only for that week of shows. The Anniversary Week experiment was a ratings success, and quickly led to the announcement on September 30, 1975, of the permanent expansion of The Price is Right to sixty minutes, effective November 3, 1975; its start time moved to 10:00 a.m. ET. From March 7, 1977 to November 4, 1977, The Price Is Right aired at 10:30 a.m. It then returned to 10:00 a.m. for just five weeks. On December 12, 1977, the show moved back to 10:30 a.m. and remained there until April 20, 1979, when it assumed the 11:00 a.m. ET slot where it has remained ever since.
The format of the show has since remained virtually unchanged. New pricing games are generally added each year, while others are retired. In addition, prizes and pricing games have kept pace with inflation, with games originally designed for four-digit prices of prizes (most often cars) adjusted to allow for five-digit prices. While the set has seen numerous redesigns and upgrades over the years, the show has maintained a similar aesthetic element from its premiere in 1972.
In season 36, CBS began offering full episodes of the show available for free viewing on the network's website. The show also began broadcasting in high definition with The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular primetime specials (the normal daytime version continued to air in 4:3 standard definition). The show made the full transition to HD broadcasts beginning with season 37. During the weeks of September 28, 2009, September 20, 2010, and October 4, 2010, two new episodes aired each weekday on CBS. In 2009, the additional episodes filled a gap between the cancellation of the daytime drama Guiding Light and the debut of Let's Make a Deal. In 2010, the extra episodes aired between the cancellation of As the World Turns and the debut of The Talk. The intervening week offered a second episode of Let's Make a Deal. The 2009 second episode aired in the time slot vacated by Guiding Light at 10:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. ET/PT, depending on the affiliate's choice. In 2010, the second episode aired in the former As the World Turns time slot, at 2:00 p.m. ET/PT.