The Price Is Wrong, Bitch.

Earlier this week I was at home watching, as I often do, The Price is Right -- mainly for background noise, it can be quite comforting. Then, the oddest thing happened. In the final showcase a man gives his bid as $23,743. Now, you may have seen this clip floating around the Internet, what it doesn't show is the man giving his bid. You notice two things: (A) The man is staring at one single point/person in the audience and (B) host Drew Carey seems a bit stunned, but kind of blows it off and makes a joke about the odd bid and sends it off to commercial.

When they come back from commercial break, this is what happens:



Drew's reaction (or lack of a reaction) to a man guessing the exact price of a showcase, the first time this has happened since the early 1970's and only the second time ever, leads one to think that something was amiss.

So, I looked into it. My search led me to this Price is Right website. After reading through thirteen pages I found that, basically, a poster named "Ted" admits he was in the audience that day and was feeding the contestant the answers. In fact, earlier in the show this same contestant hit an exact bid on contestants row while taking "Ted's" advice. "Ted," apparently has been in the audience numerous times and has actually been on the show twice. He states that the prizes are often recycled and he has memorized the retail prices. He admits it is not fool proof because the prices often fluctuate from show to show, but that day, they did not. I should add after reading through thirteen pages, everyone on that website seems to know "Ted" and no one doubts his story.

Drew Carey noticed this happening. After the odd bid (and knowing that was the correct answer) the show stopped for 45 minutes. Carey and the producers gathered on stage, it is assumed, on how to proceed considering this contestant was fed a perfect answer. Apparently they decided there was not much that could be done considering people shout from the audience all the time. So, they started taping again; Drew reads the exact bid and in the process, as we see, does very little to hide his contempt -- creating a truly odd television moment -- considering he felt the contestant cheated, or, at the very least, had some knowledgeable help.

UPDATE:
Quote found by Commenter Dustin:

"Since the show aired, a regular viewer has stepped forward claiming that he memorized the values for many of the commonly used prizes and signaled the total showcase value to Terry. This individual, known only as Ted, also claims to have helped Sharon win a car earlier in the episode."

Via Wallet Pop