Basic Trope: The first place prize isn't as good as the second place prize.
- Straight: The reward of a Game Show is $500 for second place, and a Boring, but Practical household appliance for first place.
- Exaggerated: The second place prize is a million dollars, a Cool Car, and an all-expenses paid luxury vacation. The first place "prize" is actually being sacrificed to an Eldritch Abomination.
- Downplayed: The second place reward is a new phone, and the first place reward is the phone's monetary value. Alice wins the second place prize, but she just upgraded hers a few weeks ago and thus doesn't really need it.
- Justified:
- The game show wants people to Do Well, But Not Perfect.
- The grand prize traditionally comes with some financial burden, such as donating the whole thing to charity or the winner being obligated to use the prize money to throw a village feast. Ergo, the winner is chosen beforehand, and is somebody who won't resent being told that they have to give away such a large sum "for the sake of tradition." The second place is the real prize everyone's competing for.
- The first prize has a hefty tax tag attached to it and oftentimes it turned into a money pit (the adjustment for said taxation is still stuck on hearings). The second-and-lower prizes don't pay tax. Of course the contestants would go for the option that does not screws them over.
- The first prize comes with a "you have to sign up with some Horrible Hollywood fat-cat who will do their damnedest to bleed you dry" attachment. Second place gets the fame of being a runner-up and the option to go into show business with less bloodshed.
- While getting first place on all of the circuits this season would theoretically give you a better score, each circuit favors a different car design, making such a win all but impossible, so the best score possible is achieved by racing in a Jack of All Trades car and getting a consistent second place.
- The Ace, an Invincible Hero (or Invincible Villain) is the contestant who gets first prize. With such insurmountable odds against them, a player who gets second place is eager to accept it.
- Inverted: Second Place Is for Losers
- Subverted:
- Second Prize is a sum of money, and first prize is a vacation. The vacation sounds like the better option, but it's to a pretty crappy place.
- First prize is $1000000, second prize is a $5000 cell phone.
- Double Subverted:
- But the contestant who didn't win the vacation actually loves the place, and wishes they could go there.
- It was $1000000 in Losesvaluequicklies during the day of the competition, making it only $0.01 just the day after. Leaving the cell phone as the more valuable prize.
- Parodied: Players are actively encouraged to get second place as the "real" winning position. Even getting first place is treated as losing.
- Zig-Zagged: There are a variety of prizes you can win depending on where you place, and the pools for first and second prize each have ones that are better, worse, or about the same.
- Averted: The first place prize is better than the second place one.
- Enforced:
- According to the producers, it's not exciting to watch people who are miles ahead keep winning. If the second prize place is best, that creates better tension and stakes on the show.
- The writers don't want the Butt-Monkey to get first prize but the fans are getting sick and tired of him constantly getting the shaft, so a compromise if made by giving him second prize and making the second prize the MacGuffin to his Humble Goal.
- Lampshaded: "That first place prize sounds pretty lame compared to what you get if you're second."
- Invoked: Players are encouraged to get second place, with the second place prize being shown off as the biggest one.
- Exploited:
- A contestant who isn't good at game shows still wins second, and thus the best prize because of it.
- Jim seeks second prize because he knows Bob will get first, but he swindled Bob into entering the contest because he knows First Prize winners also get humiliated on national television as part of the show's gimmick.
- Defied: The producers put first prize undeniably above second prize.
- Discussed: "I got first place! I just hope I wasn't supposed to be second..."
- Conversed: "Why did the producers of the show make the second place prize the best one?"
- Implied: The person receiving second prize looks visibly happier than the person who won the grand prize.
- Deconstructed: The fact that the second prize is much better than the first causes contestants to intentionally screw up so as to not score too highly. This causes ratings to drop as watchers want to see people giving their best.
- Reconstructed: The numerous ways the contestants intentionally screw up become the main focus of the show.
- Intended Audience Reaction: First price was a pair of tickets for a December 5th, 1876 performance at the Brooklyn Theater
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Claim your prize at Second Place Is for Winners! (But don't be jealous when you see what the runner-up got.)
