History Awesome / ThePriceIsRight

* February 22 and March 7, 2008: [=DSWs=] on Drew's first and third taped Million Dollar Spectaculars, leading to respective totals of $1,153,908 (biggest overall total in franchise history) and $1,127,062.

* November 10, 2014: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCF5yY_biDg This contestant]] kicked off Big Money Week with a bang by winning $100,000 on Rat Race (for up to $175,000, with first place awarding $100,000, 2nd place $50,000, and 3rd place $25,000), giving him a total of $104,213.

* September 23, 2019: Call it a stroke of luck. In the Showcase round, Cathy was originally going to bid $25,000 on her showcase but changed it to $24,866 last second. What was the actual retail price? ''$24,990.'' This means that if she had stayed with her original bid, it would've been a painful double overbid to start the season, as she would have been over by only $10 (since the top winner overbid on her showcase). Instead, she gets the pleasure of being the first Double Showcase Winner of Season 48 with a total of $52,443. This is also the first time Since season 35 that the very first episode of the season ends with a Double Showcase Winner. Also, the first player to win a game got a Tesla as a bonus (as for the whole week, the first player to win a pricing game, got a bonus prize).
* October 10, 2019: Show 9,000 featured a case of perseverance. Contestant Rosendo Alvarez was originally on the show on October 26, 1994, having lost Spelling Bee and then overbidding on the Showcase. Despite at the time never being allowed on as a contestant again, he continued to attend tapings and show 9,000 became a record-breaking ''180th'' taping. If that wasn't awesome enough, he made up for his last appearance by winning a Mazda in Push Over (plus $9,000), a total of $35,560. A loyal friend and true indeed.
* October 14, 2019: Big Money Week starts strong; Contestant Michael Stouber has a shirt that says "Plinko is my cardio" and lo and behold, plays Plinko. On top of that, it's that day's big money game, so it's played for a top prize of $1 million, with the center slot being worth $200,000. It's been tried before, first for $500,000 with a $100,000 center slot in 2013, and then from then on it upgraded to $1 million, with the $200,000 center slot, but we didn't have much success on nailing the center slot... until now. ''His very first chip lands in the center,'' and he walks away from the game with $202,000. Unlike the other two $200,000+ winners, he not only manages to get to the Showcase but also wins it and wins a progressive jackpot equaling the value of the other prizes won that day, for a grand total of a whopping ''$262,743!'' [[note]]And to this day, that's still the biggest total by one contestant for a single day on not just daytime ''Price,'' but for all of the daytime game shows.[[/note]]

* February 20, 2020: From Dream Car Week, [[https://youtu.be/Z64PazZReA4 this contestant (Monique) wins a Lincoln Navigator in 5 Price Tags.]] Not only that, she got a dollar on the wheel and then won the Showcase for a total of $109,568.

* December 22, 2020 (Daytime): Roberto becomes the 6th $100,000 winner in Pay The Rent.
* December 22, 2020 (Primetime): A family of 3 becomes the 6th winner of Triple Play in the Carey Era.

* January 10, 2024 (Primetime): History was made when Any Number was played. Normally, the piggy bank is only a few dollars and change, or even worse, not even a single dollar. But tonight, the piggy bank became THE MEGA PIGGY BANK. If the player won the piggy bank, the value of it would be multiplied by 10,000. So, not only is the car what you want, but the piggy bank too. Sadly, the player didn't win the car... she won the piggy bank which was worth $6.27, giving her $62,700!

* February 2, 2024 (Primetime): It's worth noting for context that lately, Time is Money has been in a ''bad'' slump on the daytime show, where it's currently in a long streak of players who haven't won anything at all. Time is Money happens to be played for $200,000 tonight instead of it's usual $20,000, and the contestant, Ayana, managed to win the ''full $200,000 on her first try.''

* December 19, 2023 (Daytime): Highlights include flawless victories in 1/2 Off and Bullseye, and the showcase winner was off by $358.

* February 7, 2024 (Primetime, Super Bowl 58): The first half had some BIG WINS, including a $118,000+ Hummer win in More or Less and a $1 spin on the Wheel. The second half had a painful moment as the player who played Hot Seat (for $200,000) bailed at $50,000 and could've won it all. AND WORSE, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PRIMETIME SINCE 2004, A DOUBLE OVERBID in the Showcase round...

*

* December 20, 2023: For the first time since season 32... GOLDEN ROAD GETS BACK-TO-BACK WINNERS. This time, the winner won a $75,645 Mercedes E450 Coupe.

** And a Range Game win[[note]]the gimmick here was that a special orange $50 area was added to the regular red $150 area, and if the ARP was within that orange area, the player won a bonus prize. This gimmick was first done in Season 45's Big Money Week; they did win, but they didn't get the bonus prize)[[/note]].

* Because Haven Studios couldn't fit Pay the Rent, they elected to try something else. Introducing Jackpot January! All through the month of January, there will be a TPiR at Night show where contestants can win hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. Special gimmicks are added in as well. And it starts off in a big way... WITH A GOLDEN ROAD WIN (something last seen in primetime in 2008), this time for a $115,780 Lincoln Navigator! Combine the 2 consecutive wins in daytime and this primetime win, and that's 3 Golden Road wins in a row! Other highlights include...

* March 23, 2017: The first contestant on stage, Jay, wears a shirt reading "Born to Play Plinko". Drew says that he doesn't think they'll be playing it so early, but they have other great stuff for him. But, George then said this was the only time where he loved it when Drew was wrong! Jay goes nuts and Drew notes that no one ever wears a Plinko shirt and plays it... until now. Jay wins $11,500 in Plinko and would go on to win an Audi in the Showcase, for $53,033 total.

* September 13, 2021: The show's milestone 50th season premieres. It's the longest-running game show for a reason, and they did something big for the premiere week. Every day this week, one game was played for a top prize of ''$1 MILLION.'' It was like taking the $1,000,000 Spectaculars and putting them into daytime ''Price.'' Sadly, the week was a bust, with only one person winning ANYTHING decent off of a million-dollar game, Robert on Monday wisely bailing out with the normal top prize of $100,000 on Pay The Rent (all amounts added a zero).
* September 17, 2021: One of 2 new games for the 50th season, To The Penny, is played for the first time. It's essentially an updated Penny Ante, except it's played for cash, up to $25,000.[[note]]You have 5 pennies, and you have to correctly guess the price of 5 grocery items. The first item has 2 prices, and then every new item has one additional price added. So, 3 prices for the 2nd item, 4 for the 3rd, 5 for the 4th, and 6 for the 5th and final one. If you want to make it easier, you can use a penny to remove a wrong price, up to using enough pennies to ensure you get the right price. If you make a mistake, you have to use 2 pennies to try again. If you get something wrong with less than 2 pennies left, you lose everything. So, you're allowed to bail out with the money you have at any time. The money starts at $1,500, doubles for the next three, then increases to $25,000.[[/note]] And since this is on the Awesome page... yep. He got the first 4 grocery item prices right and didn't use any of his 5 pennies, letting him use all 5 on the final one for an automatic win.
* September 30, 2021: The 50th Anniversary primetime special. 2 HOURS of greatness. Bloopers, never before seen. Moments, that matter. And to top it all off, we were one correct choice away on Golden Road (for a $97,140 Porsche) from a perfect show.

* December 24, 2021: A PERFECT SHOW, which includes the 7th $100,000 winner in Pay The Rent, AND a $26,000 win on the Wheel, and that person went on to win their showcase for a total of $67,559. A Christmas miracle for sure.

* February 25, 2022 (Dream Car Week): For the very first time, "10 Chances" gets played for a six-digit car. The contestant (Melissa) wins an Audi Quattro on her first chance at it (her sixth chance overall), by correctly unscrambling 915023 as $123,950. She then followed it with a $1 spin (the bonus spin didn't make it all the way around, but she still won the showcase showdown) and a Showcase win, and she ended her day with the fifth-highest daytime total of $159,040.

** Wednesday: Someone gets the "Master Key" on Master Key, and wins an Alfa Romeo.

* The week of December 19-23 (Christmas Week) gave us not one, but TWO big moments...

* December 26, 2022: Sharif, the last player to make it up on stage, wins Make Your Move for a trip to Seattle, a turntable, and a mirror, then wins $11,000 on the wheel, and then becomes the 3rd contestant this season to win both showcases for a total of $86,871. And all this happened on the day after Christmas. Not bad! Sharif's reaction when he found out he won both showcases is priceless, as he didn't know he won both at the time. He thought he had only won his showcase.

* May 5, 2023: Contestant Jacqueline runs the table on Dice Game for a 2023 Volkswagen Tiguan SE; she rolls sixes on the first two rolls, and ones on the last two, for a $33,126 car.
* May 29, 2023: Natalie becomes the last Double Showcase Winner of the season with a $150 difference on her showcase. That certainly makes up for a PAINFUL loss in Cliff Hangers, where, on the last item with $8 to spare, she said $50, and Cliff went over the mountain. The actual price of that item? $41. She missed it by $9, a dollar too many...

* November 22, 2023 (Thanksgiving Special): THE FIRST PERFECT SHOW AT HAVEN STUDIOS! Also it's the first perfect show in daytime since Christmas Eve 2021.

*

* September 25, 2023 (Season 52 Premiere): What better way to start a new season, in a new studio, than with a Golden Road win, for a $62,875 BMW i4 Gran Coupe eDrive40 in Tanzanite Blue Metallic?
* December 20, 2023: For the first time since season 32... GOLDEN ROAD GETS BACK-TO-BACK WINNERS. This time, the winner won a Mercedes E450 Coupe.

* October 28, 2016: Not to be outdone, the grand finale of Big Money Week, which was historic in that every game was played for cash[[note]](Punch-a-Bunch with a top prize of $50K, Vend-O-Price for $10K, Grand Game for $20K, Secret X for $15K, and Pick-A-Pair for $20K)[[/note]], featured Cliff Hangers being played with slightly modified rules for up to $250,000; for every dollar that she is off in guessing the price of the 3 items (i.e. every step the Guy takes on the mountain), the grand prize decreases by $10,000. The contestant managed to become the second-biggest winner in daytime Price history by winning $210,000. Just a few minutes later, she adds an extra $1,000 to it in the Showcase Showdown. The bad news? The bonus spin was also a tiebreaker, and she lost. She ended her historic run with a total of ''$213,876''. The contestants who ''did'' make it to the Showcase, unfortunately, [[MoodWhiplash spoiled the party]] with a [[DownerEnding double overbid.]]

* December 30, 2016: For the Day Before New Year's Eve "Best of 2016" special, the $100,000 Hole in One from Big Money Week (made harder by adding a spinning windmill) was brought back. We need not ask how the second putt went, we need only give [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWoQ9xV7ulY a total of $102,164.]] Sadly, that was the only highlight as it ended in a double overbid, which included a semi-painful $429 overbid by the top winner.
* March 23, 2017: The first contestant on stage, Jay, wears a shirt reading "Born to Play Plinko". Drew says that he doesn't think they'll be playing it so early, but they have other great stuff for him. But, George then said this was the only time where he loved it when Drew was wrong! Jay goes nuts and Drew notes that no one ever wears a Plinko shirt and plays it... until now. Jay won $11,500 in Plinko and would go on to win an Audi in the Showcase, for $53,033 total.

** Thursday: A double showcase win by ''$1'', giving the winner, Shannon, a total of $75,943.

* Anytime in the Showcase Showdown someone gets a dollar in their first spin or a combination of two, then gets the dollar again on their bonus spin for $11,000/$26,000.

* Anytime in the Showcase Showdown someone gets a dollar in their first spin or a combination of two, then gets the dollar again on their bonus spin for $26,000 (or $11,000 pre-2008).

* Doris Wiltse holds the original show's all-time top winnings record. In seven weeks on the NBC nighttime show in 1963, she accumulated $76,110 in merchandise, which equals $606,362.85 in 2016 money.

* When the show moved to ABC in the Fall of 1963, there was an addition to the usual home sweepstakes: the winner, flown to New York to be a contestant, was offered his/her choice of a working oil well or $25,000 cash. An elderly gentleman was the winner of that sweepstakes, and chose the $25,000 because "I haven't got time to wait for the well!"

* In general, the insane budget this show had for its time. While it started slightly bigger than the daytime version (a Barker winner got around $3,000-$4,000, while a James winner got around $5,000-$6,000), by the end of its first season, the show's budget settled into what we remember it as. It wasn't uncommon to have two cars offered in a game, or even on one occasion, ''an actual airplane'' (that was won in a showcase BTW, a total of $24,285). The main attraction was the Showcases, which went as high as ''nearly $23,000'', an insane total for early 70's game shows.

* 2010-11: Season 39's '''ten''' Double Showcase Wins, which is a record for the show in ''at least'' the past '''decade''' (from September 2000 onward, the DSW record for one season was eight). Topped in the 2011-2012 season with ''twelve''.

* December 30, 2010: The Best of 2010 show had another playing of Rat Race where the contestant [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJLwPaMtzI&t=2087s won all three prizes]], including the top prize of a 1955 Ford Thunderbird.

* October 14, 2013: The second Big Money Week [[note]](a week in which one game gets played for an extravagant prize such as a luxury car, or over $100,000 cash)[[/note]] kicked off with a bang, as the contestant not only won $100,000 on 1/2 Off but went on to win $1,000 on the Big Wheel and her Showcase, becoming the ninth-biggest winner in daytime ''Price'' history with $140,236. [[note]](She was $124 away from a DSW and the then all-time record.)[[/note]]

* November 10, 2014: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCF5yY_biDg This contestant]] kicked off Big Money Week with a bang by winning $100,000 on Rat Race (for up to $175,000, with first place awarding $100,000, 2nd place $50,000, and 3rd place $25,000), giving him a total of $104,213. But sadly, this show ended in a Double Overbid.

* December 22, 2015: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ge5EDEoeCs 3 Strikes gets its second consecutive win.]] Unlike the Triple Play winner from the day before, the contestant won his showcase, only missing it by $370. He was only $120 away from winning both Showcases, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen which would've netted him a near-$118,000 payoff]]. But $87,043 including 2 cars is still a great day's work.

* September 1, 2016: To celebrate the 11,000th episode of ''The Young and The Restless,'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLwLUS2AAfs the contestant (David) plays the Grand Game for $11,000.]] He wins it and then [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NW0w699RM wins another $26,000 at the Big Wheel.]] Unfortunately, he came up short in the Showcase, but $37,000 in cash + the Segway he won in the One Bid is not a bad day's work on ''Price''. He won MORE than the showcase winner (Jamie) did.

* March 30, 2017: 42 years after the $30-$29 DSW war, it happens again. A Showcase winner is determined by a margin of '''$1.''' But unlike last time, the contestant who won didn't win both showcases.

** If that wasn't enough, the main feature of this episode was that whoever won a game also got a check for the value of the prize. While we only had three winners [[note]]Side by Side for a $7,455 trip to Bejing, That's Too Much for a $23,020 Fiat 500 C, and the aforementioned Pay The Rent[[/note]], those wins, plus the One-Bid prizes, $24,000 on the wheel (all the cash bonuses were doubled, so it's $2,000 for the initial dollar, and $20,000 for green sections and $50,000 for the dollar on the bonus spins), and the Showcase added up to ''Price'' breaking its daytime record for the most ever given away in one show, $340,550[[AndNinetyNineCents .23]].

** Tuesday: Hannah, after wisely bailing out with $10,000 on Hot Seat ($100,000 top prize), became the only player to get a dollar on both the normal spin and the bonus spin on the Big Wheel the whole week for $52,000, then had an impressive Showcase win (she missed hers by $843) for a total of $105,662.

* October 10, 2019: Show 9,000 featured a case of perseverance. Contestant Rosendo Alvarez was originally on the show on October 26, 1994, having lost Spelling Bee and then overbidding on the Showcase. Despite at the time never being allowed on as a contestant again, he continued to attend tapings and show 9,000 became a record-breaking ''180th'' taping. If that wasn't awesome enough, he made up for his last appearance by winning a Mazda in Push Over (plus $9,000 cash), for a total of $35,560. A loyal friend and true indeed.
* October 14, 2019: Big Money Week starts strong; Contestant Michael Stouber has a shirt that says "Plinko is my cardio" and lo and behold, plays Plinko. On top of that, it's that day's big money game, so it's played for a top prize of $1 million, with the center slot being worth $200,000. It's been tried before, first for $500,000 with a $100,000 center slot in 2013, and then from then on it upgraded to $1 million, with the $200,000 center slot, but we didn't have much success on nailing the center slot... until now. ''His very first chip lands in the center,'' and he walks away from the game with $202,000. Unlike the other two $200,000+ winners, he not only manages to get to the Showcase but also wins it and wins a progressive cash jackpot equaling the value of the other prizes won that day, for a grand total of a whopping ''$262,743!'' [[note]]And to this day, that's still the biggest total by one contestant for a single day on not just daytime ''Price,'' but for all of the daytime game shows.[[/note]]

* April 5, 2021: In the Showcases, the runner-up (Monique, who won $11,000 on the wheel) was off by $301. The top winner (Jack, who also won $11,000 cash ($10,000 bailout on Hot Seat, and $1,000 on the wheel) before this)? OFF BY $133 to win both showcases, giving him $58,958 in total. And those are the two closest bids with a double showcase winner in the Carey era since the $116-$290 result years ago.

* September 13, 2021: The show's milestone 50th season premieres. It's the longest-running game show for a reason, and they did something big for the premiere week. Every day this week, one game was played for a top prize of ''$1 MILLION.'' It was like taking the $1,000,000 Spectaculars and putting them into daytime ''Price.'' Sadly, the week was a bust, with only one person winning ANYTHING decent off of a million-dollar game, Robert on Monday wisely bailing out with the normal top prize of $100,000 on Pay The Rent (all cash amounts were 10x normal play, so the money ladder goes like this: $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $1,000,000).
* September 17, 2021: One of 2 new games for the 50th season, To The Penny, is played for the first time. It's essentially an updated Penny Ante, except it's played for cash, up to $25,000.[[note]]You have 5 pennies, and you have to correctly guess the price of 5 grocery items. The first item has 2 prices, and then every new item has one additional price added. So, 3 prices for the 2nd item, 4 for the 3rd, 5 for the 4th, and 6 for the 5th and final one. If you want to make it easier, you can use a penny to remove a wrong price, up to using enough pennies to ensure you get the right price. If you make a mistake, you have to use 2 pennies to try again. If you get something wrong with less than 2 pennies left, you lose everything. So, you're allowed to bail out with the money you have at any time. The money tree goes like this: $1,500, $3,000, $6,000, $12,000, and $25,000.[[/note]] And since this is on the Awesome page... yep, you guessed it, the first player to ever play this game won $25,000. He got the first 4 grocery item prices right and didn't use any of his 5 pennies, letting him use all 5 on the final one to leave ONLY the right price and win the $25,000 automatically.

** Monday: Someone won a $64,735 Porsche Macan in Lucky $even, we had a big comeback victory on Pathfinder, and that person (Iris) went on to win the Showcase, with hers being worth OVER $72,000 (which included a Jaguar), for a total of $106,328. You don't see a showcase worth that much in daytime shows often.

** Wednesday: Someone gets the "Master Key" on Master Key, and wins everything, including an Alfa Romeo.

** Friday: Someone sweeps 1/2 Off and wins a $50,000+ Range Rover and $1,000 for getting all 3 pairs of items correct, Pocket Change was won for a $43,672 Volkswagen Atlas, and another big showcase win, this time, worth $62,969, which included a Lincoln Nautilus, for a total for the winner of $70,037. Talk about finishing Dream Car Week with a bang!

** Thursday: A $249 double showcase win, giving the winner, Shannon, a total of $75,943.

* April 19, 2023: Contestant Tony plays 10 Chances for a 3-prong smart plug, a Hewlett-Packard desktop computer, and an Aurora Black KIA Forte XS; he sweeps the board with guesses of $30, $570, and $21,530 respectively (the first exacta win on 10 Chances since May 5, 2000, with Bob Barker and the first-ever with Drew Carey), and even better, he was on in 1997 and had won $5,100 in Plinko. He also ran the now-defunct fansite [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080128162300/http://www.tpir.tv/ TPIR.tv]].

* Any time a player gets the price exactly right after another player had tried bidding $1 more.

* Anytime in the Showcase Showdown someone gets a dollar in their first spin or a combination of two- then gets the dollar again on their bonus spin for $26,000 (or $11,000 pre-2008).

* Janice Pennington. Having been on the show since its 1972 return, she, [[LovelyAssistant Vanna White]], and maybe Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell are the only known models to stay on past their "expiration dates" (although Cindy these days "models" her own furniture collection). In 1988, an inexperienced camera guy swung the wrong way during the opening, causing severe injuries to Pennington. The resulting surgery left her unable to model swimsuits, and yet she continued for '''12 more years''', remaining loyal to Bob Barker even through all his scandals in the 1990s. She and Kathleen Bradley were fired after the December 15, 2000, show; Barker said it was budget cuts, but it was really after they had testified against him in a trial.

** In Any Number, picking all the numbers in the price of the car without putting any numbers in the smaller prize or piggy bank.

** In Pass the Buck, earning all three picks, and winning the maximum $8000 and the CAR.

* When the show moved to ABC in Fall 1963, there was an addition to the usual home sweepstakes: the winner, flown to New York to be a contestant, was offered his/her choice of a working oil well or $25,000 cash. An elderly gentleman was the winner of that sweepstakes, and chose the $25,000 because "I haven't got time to wait for the well!"
* Richard Keyes was a contestant in the final weeks of the NBC nighttime show, and his bonus, after winning a sailboat, was to be an honorary judge at the Miss America Pageant. He got to do a meet-and-greet with all the contestants and after observing them in various categories, he wrote down the names of the five girls he thought had the best chance to crowned Miss America. Those selections were placed in a sealed envelope and kept in abeyance until the first ABC nighttime show on September 18 (eleven days after the pageant). If any of Mr. Keyes' selections made it to the semi-finals, he won $2,500. If any of his selections became a finalist, he won $5,000. If any of his selections was named Miss America, he won $10,000. (The September 18 show does not circulate, so the results of Mr. Keyes' selections remain an enigma.)
* The nighttime version had a ''really'' insane prize budget (even compared to the Mega-Showcases offered in Australia decades later!), which resulted in such outlandish prizes as corporate stock, an airplane or ''an island in the Saint Lawrence Seaway''. In later years, thanks to a strong economy, the show could offer new homes and even ''new businesses''! There were also ridiculously extravagant bonuses attached to benign prices, such as a live peacock to go with a color TV (that's [[Creator/{{NBC}} the color guide]], [[VisualPun get it?]]) or, along with backyard party supplies, entertainment supplied by jazz legend Woody Herman and his ''dozen-man strong orchestra''.

* October 25, 1977: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_VHlC9Z7eE Everything you'd need to compete with your neighbor]]. A showcase that wouldn't have been out of place on the concurrent syndicated version, especially in terms of number of prizes, not to mention a Chevy Chevette AND a Cadillac...AND SHE WON IT FOR $19,911 ALL TOLD!! [[note]]In fact, had she bid $19,000 even, it would've been a $16 DSW and a total of $24,158, a likely record for the time.[[/note]]

* December 20, 1984: [[https://youtu.be/lbfFhONafhc?si=83O7mTjbEBZAszok Michelle, who's heavily pregnant, wins the Race Game on the first try, getting all the price tags in the correct places in just 9 seconds]]. Bob was concerned about whether she'd able to play, even offering to have Janice do the running for her. But when she wins, he says "In the future, we want only mothers about-to-be in this game.".

* January 13, 1992: Danielle Torres, then a student at Pepperdine University, won a Lincoln Continental Signature Series in 3 Strikes+, and later went on to win a Showcase which included a Corvette. Her final total: $88,865, which was a ''Price'' record for a dozen years.

* October 4, 1996: Walter plays the Dice Game for a Mercury. And he becomes the first player to run the table!

* 2003: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEXXES5v59o A contestant named Michael]] is arguably the most GenreSavvy player to ever appear on the show, first earning his $500 bonus for his exact bid of ''$2,148'' for the IUFB, then ''owning'' Buy or Sell, coming $200 shy of winning the maximum cash of $1,900. He's so savvy Bob actually mentions that he feels useless onstage with him.

* In general, the insane budget this show had for its time. While it started out slightly bigger than the daytime version (a Barker winner got around $3,000-$4,000, while a James winner got around $5,000-$6,000), by the end of its first season, the show's budget settled into what we remember it as. It wasn't uncommon to have two cars offered in a game, or even on one occasion, ''an actual airplane'' (that was won in a showcase BTW, a total of $24,285). The main attraction was the Showcases, which went as high as ''nearly $23,000'', an insane total for early 70's game shows.

* A contestant playing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GVoW-7VuxQ Switcheroo]] was the first to win everything on the first try. Note that the prop doesn't actually have its clock yet, and it would be at least another four years before it did.

* April 4, 2008 (Million-Dollar Spectacular): Clock Game was played with a million-dollar bonus where, while winning the game within the normal 30 seconds still won the standard primetime $5,000 bonus, if the contestant guessed both prices within 10 seconds (which had happened something like twice in the previous 36 years), they would win an additional million bucks. Taking full advantage of the show's [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] of AndNinetyNineCents, the contestant nailed the first prize on her first try, got the second in eight seconds, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJw1rlmJ81U won the million.]] She would then go on to win the Showcase, for a final total of $1,089,017.

* December 16, 2008: A contestant named Terry Kniess did what no other contestant had done for about 35 years — make a perfect bid in the Showcase. In fact, the producers were convinced that Terry had cheated somehow and ordered a 20-minute "stopdown" to investigate. Turned out that Terry's helper, a Golden-Road.net guy named Ted who had been a contestant in 1992, was just a devoted watcher who had memorized the prices of most of the items that turned up in the Showcases — although Kniess later said that '''he''' watched the show regularly, and in fact ''wrote a book'' about his perfect bid. Drew, however, had a feeling that something was up, and made no attempt to hide his suspicion.

* April 21, 2010: A contestant won a restored 1964 Bentley (an extremely expensive British line of cars) playing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUxZMhwjFQw Hole In One.]] The clincher? He putted from the first line (the farthest from the hole), and had narrowly missed on his first try.

* October 15, 2010: For the first time ever, a contestant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_LbTk_zqE0 wins ALL THREE prizes in Rat Race]].

* April 22, 2011: The immediate next playing of Three Strikes is for an electric car...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4cLudVZY3U and this one crawled back from two Strikes to a full-count win!]]
* June 3, 2011: Three consecutive playings of Three Strikes, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgEGvW0aPVU all won on a full count]]''.

* April 20, 2012: A woman playing Check-Out makes some guessing on each product, to which the audience was booing and it didn't help that she was acting totally clueless as she guessed. As the prices for each item were revealed, it was actually shown that the contestant was right in the ballpark of the actual prices. Drew even made a TakeThat against the audience (jokingly) when it was revealed that the contestant won the game.

* March 18, 2013: It's been a while since we've had one of these, so here's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbIwF4bcMjY another 3 Strikes win.]] Also heartwarming in that it was the contestant's birthday. And she won her Showcase as well in impressive fashion (only off by $312), for a grand total of $78,388. [[note]](She was $62 away from a DSW and a total of $101,162.)[[/note]]

* April 24, 2013: Pay the Rent, [[NintendoHard a notoriously-hard game to win all the way for Seasons 39-40]], was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaYJwLNNbkY finally won]], and the contestant went on to a Showcase win and a total of $124,017. (Unfortunately, the PTR win came about because they were desperate to get a winner, adding more and more solutions as Season 41 progressed...a move made very clear when the game went right back to being NintendoHard.)

* November 19, 2013: As this is Dream Car week, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8Y-zqxx_o some pricing games are played for luxury cars.]] Jason, a Hole In One contestant, places all six grocery items in the correct order, wins the $500, then putts from the closest line and wins a BMW 640i worth just over '''$87,000'''. Better yet, Jason, being a turf management major from Clemson University, was currently ''working on a golf course in South Carolina''. It was a match made in heaven!

** The yearly "best prizes of the year" episode brought back the Audi R8 from Dream Car Week, with only a game of Gas Money in the way. Sheree beat the odds, and walked away with a total of $170,345, making her the fourth-biggest winner in daytime ''TPIR'' history.

* June 26, 2014: A contestant named James takes it down to the wire in Cover Up for a Chevy Equinox and wins. Then he wins $26,000 at the Big Wheel. And THEN he wins his Showcase, which included another car (a Hyundai Elantra) for a grand total of $81,918. Drew said it best, not a bad haul for a daytime show.

* November 10, 2014: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCF5yY_biDg This contestant]] kicked off Big Money Week with a bang by winning $100,000 on Rat Race, giving him a total of $104,213. But sadly, this show ended in a Double Overbid.

* December 22, 2014: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM-j9W9SJsw This guy, Luke]], won a Lexus [=IS350C=] convertible in one of the greatest 3 Strikes comebacks ever, despite having two strikes and no numbers up at one point. He started the game with some wrong number placements, and then he got the first 2 strikes early, which ain't a good thing. He was nearly screwed from the start. He then pulls three numbers in a row, and guesses ''all'' of them correctly. He gets his fourth number wrong, but by then, he can fill in the remaining spots, as long as he avoided pulling the last strike... ''and he did''. He later went on to win the Showcase thanks to a smart bid by his girlfriend for a grand total of $80,061.
* December 23, 2014: On the second day of Christmas Week, Giselle Moody became the first person to win [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71ZzrVX_0Rk Golden Road in the Carey era (daytime)]], winning a $73,900 Mercedes-Benz SUV. She also got a free pass to the Showcase since both her opponents went over (she spun 45 on her only spin), and won it for a grand total of $108,894.

* March 5, 2015: A contestant (Hilda) gets a DSW with a difference of ''$8.'' Final take: $53,666.

* December 21, 2015: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6POVsupjYk Triple Play gets its first winner]] '''since 2007'''. The contestant made it to the Showcase...[[DownerEnding only to overbid by $195]]. But, can't feel too bad for the guy that broke an 8-year-long losing streak in that game.

* February 15, 2016: To start off this Dream Car Week, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P20_ijVDI3Q Spelling Bee is played for a $120,265 Aston Martin.]] Francesca, the contestant, manages to earn the maximum possible five cards and turns down $25,000 (each card was worth $5,000 for this particular playing) to go for the car. Her first card? The "CAR" card (of which there are only two of 30 on the board), giving her a total of $121,806.
* February 17, 2016: One rule instituted for this Dream Car Week is that instead of a player getting the usual $25,000 for spinning a dollar on their Big Wheel bonus spin, they would get a BMW 320i sedan worth $35,095. On this day, someone did just that, then won the Showcase for a total of $73,141.

* May 23, 2016 (Survivor Prime Time Special): [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je7xzXZMk4U The second $25,000 win on Punch-A-Bunch.]]
* September 1, 2016: To celebrate the 11,000th episode of ''The Young and The Restless,'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLwLUS2AAfs the contestant (David) plays the Grand Game for $11,000.]] He wins it and then [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NW0w699RM wins another $26,000 at the Big Wheel.]] Unfortunately, he came up short in the Showcase, but $37,000 in cash + the segway he won in the One Bid is not a bad day's work on ''Price''. In fact, he actually won MORE than the showcase winner did.

* October 28, 2016: Not to be outdone, the grand finale of Big Money Week, which was historic in that every game was played for cash[[note]](Punch-a-Bunch with a top prize of $50K, Vend-O-Price for $10K, Grand Game for $20K, Secret X for $15K, and Pick-A-Pair for $20K)[[/note]], featured Cliff Hangers being played with slightly modified rules for up to $250,000; for every dollar that she is off in guessing the price of the 3 items (i.e. every step the Guy takes on the mountain), the grand prize decreases by $10,000. The contestant managed to become the second-biggest winner in daytime Price history by winning $210,000. Just a few minutes later, she adds an extra $1,000 to it in the Showcase Showdown. The bad news? The bonus spin was also a tiebreaker, and she lost. She ended her historic run with a grand total of ''$213,876''. The contestants who ''did'' make it to the Showcase, unfortunately, [[MoodWhiplash spoiled the party]] with a [[DownerEnding double overbid.]]

* March 23, 2017: The first contestant on stage, Jay, wears a shirt reading "Born to Play Plinko". Drew says that he doesn't think they'll be playing it so early, but they have other great stuff for him. But, George then said this was the only time where he loved it when Drew was wrong! Jay goes nuts and Drew notes that no one ever wears a Plinko shirt and actually plays it... until now. Jay wins $11,500 and eventually the Showcase, which had an Audi in his, for $53,033 total.

* May 18, 2017: Continuing Dream Car Week, Danielle Byers-Anderson plays Pass the Buck for a Maserati Ghibli worth $72,850, plus increased dollar amounts on the board ($10K, $15K, and $20K, to be exact). She earns all three choices, but she only needed one.

* June 22, 2017: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2kjlUunKw0 A contestant in Pocket Change]] has bad luck with the numbers, sending the car's price to $1.75. He makes up for it in the envelope department, though. The first card is $0.50. Second card... ''$2.'' And he also had a quarter and a dime for a total of $3.10. He could've played that game as badly as possible (as the max possible price for the car is $2.75), and still would have won.
* September 22, 2017: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp1a0BHmyc0 One for the ages]]. A perfect show to wrap up premiere week would have been impressive by itself, but the show reaches legendary status during the second Showcase Showdown. Because it's the 10th anniversary of Drew's debut as host, spinning a dollar on the wheel during the week wins the contestant $10,000 instead of the usual $1,000. No one gets a dollar in the first nine showdowns of the week, but all three contestants do it in No. 10. Then, for the first time since 10/6/98, two of them then spin a dollar on their bonus spins, winning $25,000 each, while sadly the third is just short of landing on the nickel, which would have given him an additional $10,000. A grand total of $80,000 is given away during the segment, surpassing the normal maximum of $78,000. If it's not the best episode of the Carey era, it's definitely in the top three. When the second $25,000 is won, Drew collapses into unstoppable laughter because he can't believe what he's seeing and even the contestants enjoy a HappyDance.
* October 31, 2017: One lucky hero is able to vanquish the evil LosingHorns in this Halloween episode by winning $25,000 on Punch A Bunch. Also, that win was one of 5 out of 6 that day.

* January 26th & 29th, 2018: Two consecutive shows (Friday and Monday) see Double Showcase Wins #2 & #3 with differences in the $100 range, and both winners get two cars to boot! The second win is also credible for saving a show where nobody really won anything except $11,000 from Plinko.

** If that wasn't enough, the main feature of this episode was that whoever won a game also got a check for the value of the prize. While we only had three winners [[note]]Side by Side for a $7,455 trip to Bejing, That's Too Much for a $23,020 Fiat 500 C, and the aforementioned Pay The Rent[[/note]], those wins, plus the One-Bid prizes, $24,000 on the wheel (all the cash bonuses were doubled), and the Showcase added up to ''Price'' breaking its own daytime record for the most ever given away in one show, $340,550[[AndNinetyNineCents .23]].

* April 30, 2018: This is a tale of redemption. Contestant Jared first appeared on the 3/6/95 episode, winning a personal computer and $600 on Plinko before bowing out at the wheel. Flash forward to now, and he not only makes it to the Showcase, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpAtXNNkC_Y but he becomes the season's seventh Double Showcase Winner]] for a grand total of $52,931. And it also pretty much saved a winless show.

* May 25, 2018: A contestant wins Card Game by ''$5.'' (Guess was $19,800, with a $2,000 range ($19,800-$21,800), and the ARP was $21,''795.'') [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB9fu9MFRMU Talk about a close call!]]
* September 17, 2018: Season 47 starts off with a bang with a rare Pay the Rent win and a total of $102,479.

* October 8-12, 2018: This season's Big Money Week was overall a success, but two standout moments involve six-figure paydays.
** Tuesday: Hannah, after bailing out at $10,000 playing Hot Seat for $100,000, became the only player to hit a double dollar on the Big Wheel for the whole week for $52,000, then went on to an impressive Showcase win (she was off by $843) for $105,662.
** Thursday: Christopher won $51,000 on 1/2 Off, then the Showcase for $101,604.

* September 23, 2019: Call it a stroke of luck. In the Showcase round, Cathy was originally going to bid $25,000 on her showcase but changed it to $24,866 last second. What was the actual retail price? ''$24,990.'' This means, if she had stayed with her original bid, it would've been a painful double overbid to start the season, as she would have been over by only $10 (since the top winner overbid on her showcase). But instead, she gets the pleasure of being the first DSW of Season 48 with a total of $52,443. This is also the first time since season 35 that the very first episode of the season ends with a DSW. Also, the first player to win a game got a Tesla as a bonus (as for the whole week, the first player to win a pricing game, got a bonus prize).
* October 10, 2019: Show 9,000 featured a case of perseverance. Contestant Rosendo was here back on October 26, 1994, having lost Spelling Bee and then overbidding on the Showcase. Despite at the time never being allowed on as a contestant again, he continued to attend tapings and show 9,000 became a record-breaking ''180th'' taping. If that wasn't awesome enough, he made up for his last appearance by winning a Mazda in Push Over (plus $9,000 cash), for a total of $35,560. A loyal friend and true indeed.
* October 14, 2019: Big Money Week starts off really strong; Contestant Michael Stouber has a shirt that says "Plinko is my cardio" and lo and behold, plays Plinko. On top of that, it's that day's big money game, so it's played for a top prize of $1 million, with the center slot being worth $200,000. It's been tried before, first for $500,000 with a $100,000 center slot in 2013, and then from then on it upgraded to $1 million, with the $200K center slot, but we didn't have much success on nailing the center slot... until now. ''His very first chip lands in the center,'' and he walks away from the game with $202,000. Unlike the other two $200,000+ winners, he not only manages to get to the Showcase, but he also wins both his showcase and a progressive jackpot equaling the value of the other prizes won that day, for a grand total of a whopping ''$262,743!'' [[note]]And to this day, that's still the biggest total by one contestant for a single day on not just daytime ''Price,'' but for all of the daytime game shows.[[/note]]

* February 20, 2020: From Dream Car Week, [[https://youtu.be/Z64PazZReA4 this contestant (Monique) wins a Lincoln Navigator in 5 Price Tags.]] Not only that, she wins $1,000 on the Big Wheel and then wins the Showcase for a grand total of $109,568.
* March 25, 2020: A contestant (Brittany) wins both showcases WITH A DIFFERENCE OF ''$6'' for a total of $61,002. It's the best Showcase bid ever in the Carey era, aside from the exact bid back in November 2008.

* February 15, 2021: Not even COVID-19 could keep Price from another Big Money Week, and this one started with a bang: a $75,000 win on Rat Race, followed by the return of the progressive jackpot from the previous BMW (and won for $22,790), equals $135,449.69.

* April 5, 2021: In the Showcases, the runner-up (who won $11,000 on the wheel) was off by $301. The top winner (who also won $11,000 cash before this)? OFF BY $133 for a DSW and $58,958 in total. And those are the 2 closest bids with a DSW in the Carey era since the $116-$290 result years ago.
* June 24, 2021: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC5wiSGA3wo The first $25,000 win on Punch A Bunch in over 3 years.]] It also saved the show from being winless. Brian also won an extra $1,000 at the Big Wheel. Sadly, it ended in a double overbid, because of El Cheapo showcases.

* September 13, 2021: The show's milestone 50th season premieres. It's the longest-running game show for a reason, and they did something big for the premiere week. Every day this week, one game was played for a top prize of ''$1 MILLION.'' Kinda like taking the Million Dollar Spectaculars and putting them into daytime ''Price.'' Sadly, the week was a bust, with only one person winning ANYTHING decent off of a million-dollar game, Robert on Monday bailing with the normal top prize of $100,000 on Pay The Rent (all cash amounts were 10x normal play).
* September 17, 2021: One of 2 new games for the 50th season, To The Penny, is played for the first time. It's essentially an updated Penny Ante, except it's played for cash, up to $25,000.[[note]]You have 5 pennies, and you have to correctly guess the price of 5 grocery items. The first item has 2 prices, and then every new item has one additional price added. So, 3 prices for the 2nd item, 4 for the 3rd, 5 for the 4th, and 6 for the 5th and final one. If you want to make it easier, you can use a penny to remove a wrong price, up to using enough pennies to ensure you get the right price. If you make a mistake, you have to use 2 pennies to get another chance. If you get something wrong with less than 2 pennies left, you lose everything. So, you're allowed to bail out with the money you have at any time. The money tree goes like this: $1,500, $3,000, $6,000, $12,000, and $25,000.[[/note]] And since this is on the Awesome page... yep, you guessed it, the first player to ever play this game won $25,000. He got the first 4 grocery item prices right and didn't use any of his 5 pennies, letting him use all 5 on the final one to leave ONLY the right price and win the $25,000 automatically.

** AND THEN becomes the golden season's first DSW for a grand total of $84,726.

* February 25, 2022 (Dream Car Week): For the first time ever, "10 Chances" gets played for a six-digit car. The contestant (Melissa) wins an Audi Quattro on her first chance at it (her sixth chance overall), by correctly unscrambling 915023 as $123,950. She then followed it with a $1 spin (the bonus spin didn't make it all the way around, but she still won the showdown) and a Showcase win, and she ends her day with the fifth-highest daytime total of $159,040.

** Monday: Someone won a $64,735 Porsche Macan in Lucky $even, we had a big comeback victory on Pathfinder, and that person (Iris) went on to win the Showcase, with hers being worth OVER $72,000 (which included a Jaguar), for a grand total of $106,328. Dang, you don't see a showcase worth that much in the daytime shows often.

** Friday: Someone sweeps 1/2 Off and wins a $50,000+ Range Rover and $1,000 for getting all 3 pairs of items correct, Pocket Change was won for a $43,672 Volkswagen Atlas, and another big showcase win, this time, worth $62,969, which included a Lincoln Nautilus, for a grand total for the winner of $70,037. Talk about finishing Dream Car Week with a bang!
* October 26, 2022: The last contestant to make it up on stage, Simon, wins a car on Cover Up, then wins $26,000 on the Wheel, and THEN the Showcase for a grand total of $92,932. Talk about cleaning the house!

** Thursday: A $249 DSW, giving the winner, Shannon, a total of $75,943.
** Friday: The Ford family wins a $74,583 Audi S5 in Golden Road, got a free pass to the showcase after the first 2 families went over (they spun a 25), and then won it for a total of $130,077.
* December 26, 2022: Sharif, the last player to make it up on stage, wins Make Your Move for a trip to Seattle, a turntable, and a mirror, then wins $11,000 on the wheel, and then becomes the 3rd contestant this season to win both showcases for a total of $86,871 and all this on the day after Christmas. Not bad! Sharif's reaction when he found out he won both is priceless, as he didn't know he won both at the time. He thought he had only won his showcase.

* February 3, 2023 (Cancer Prevention Special): Thomas Angulo (R.I.P.), runs the table on More or Less, and then becomes the season's 4th DSW, giving him a grand total of $104,018.
* March 10, 2023: Contestant Brian is the second person in his family to make it on the show, with his father winning a car the previous year during the Veterans Day special. Not only does Brian make it on stage from the same spot in Bidder's Row that his dad was in, but he plays for and ''wins the exact same car'' his dad did in a game of Pathfinder.

* September 4, 2012: Remember Paul Levine, the perfect Bonus Game player from the 1972 premiere? Well, he won his way out of Contestants' Row again for the 40th-Anniversary Special[[note]](the ''entire audience'' on this occasion consisted of past contestants invited back for the show)[[/note]], and happened to play Bonus Game ''again''...and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqB2tn1PC-o got all four prizes right again!]]'' To make the double-win sweeter, this time the bonus prize was ''a restored 1972 Monte Carlo''!

** Winning Temptation. It's a hard game and you get the four gifts on top of the car as well.

* June 26, 2009: This one didn't happen on the show itself but on the internet. Drew opened [[http://drewfromtv.blogspot.com his own personal blog]] and within days (not weeks as was expected), ruthless fans (most of them from Golden-Road.net) began attacking him. One took his commentary too far and pushed Drew into disabling comments temporarily. Since July 3, 2008, a lot of users over at that website had been hurling all sorts of invective at Drew and Creator/FremantleMedia over the firing of Roger Dobkowitz and various other things. When Drew disabled comments, he made a blog entry announcing that he had disabled them, and in this blog entry he stuck it to the fans by calling them "telephone pole screamers".

* February 11-12, 2008 (Million-Dollar Spectaculars; aired February 22 & March 7): [=DSWs=] on Drew's first and third MDS, leading to respective totals of $1,153,908 (biggest overall total in franchise history) and $1,127,062.
* March 7, 2008 (Million-Dollar Spectacular; aired April 4): Clock Game was played with a million-dollar bonus where, while winning the game within the normal 30 seconds still won the standard primetime $5,000 bonus, if the contestant guessed both prices within 10 seconds (which had happened something like twice in the previous 36 years), they would win an additional million bucks. Taking full advantage of the show's [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] of AndNinetyNineCents, the contestant nailed the first prize on her first try, got the second in eight seconds, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJw1rlmJ81U won the million.]] She would then go on to win the Showcase, for a final total of $1,089,017.

* November 11, 2008 (aired November 3): Contestant Dorothy from the second episode (actually the fourth show taped), the first person to ever play Grocery Game, came back. She didn't play Grocery Game again, though.
* November 27, 2008 (aired December 16): A contestant named Terry Kniess did what no other contestant had done for about 35 years — make a perfect bid in the Showcase. In fact, the producers were convinced that Terry had cheated somehow and ordered a 20-minute "stopdown" to investigate. Turned out that Terry's helper, a Golden-Road.net guy named Ted who had been a contestant in 1992, was just a devoted watcher who had memorized the prices of most of the items that turned up in the Showcases — although Kniess later said that '''he''' watched the show regularly, and in fact ''wrote a book'' about his perfect bid. Drew, however, had a feeling that something was up, and made no attempt to hide his suspicion.

* April 15, 2010 (aired April 16): A contestant wins Half Off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD2epRHCB-8 with no boxes removed from play.]]

* December 1, 2010 (aired November 9): A contestant playing Clock Game wins both prizes in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmBNMueyyvM a record 3.5 seconds.]]

* March 18, 2013: It's been a while since we've had one of these, so here's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbIwF4bcMjY another 3 Strikes win.]] Also heartwarming in that it was the contestant's birthday. AND she won her Showcase as well for a total of $78,388. [[note]](She was $62 away from a DSW and a total of $101,162.)[[/note]]

* September 23, 2019: Call it a stroke of luck. In the Showcase round, Cathy was originally going to bid $25,000 on her showcase but changed it to $24,866 last second. What was the actual retail price? ''$24,990.'' Which means, if she had stayed with her original bid, it would've been a painful double overbid to start the season, as she would have been over by only $10 (since the top winner overbid on her showcase). But instead, she gets the pleasure of being the first DSW of Season 48 with a total of $52,443. This is also the first time since season 35 that the very first episode of the season ends with a DSW. Also, the first player to win a game got a Tesla as a bonus (as for the whole week, the first player to win a pricing game, got a bonus prize).
* October 10, 2019: Show 9,000 featured a case of perseverance. Contestant Rosendo was here back on October 26, 1994, having lost Spelling Bee and then overbidding on the Showcase. Despite at the time never being allowed on as a contestant again, he continued to attend tapings, and show 9000 became a record-breaking ''180th'' taping. If that wasn't awesome enough, he made up for his last appearance by winning a Mazda3 in Push Over (plus $9,000), for a total of $35,560. A loyal friend and true indeed.
* October 14, 2019: Big Money Week starts off really strong; Contestant Michael Stouber has a shirt that says "Plinko is my cardio" and lo and behold, plays Plinko. On top of that, it's that day's big money game, so it's played for a top prize of $1 million, with the center slot being worth $200,000. It's been tried before, first for $500,000 with a $100,000 center slot in 2013, and then from then on it upgraded to $1 million, with the $200K center slot, but we didn't have much success on nailing the center slot... until now. ''His very first chip lands in the center,'' and he walks away from the game with $202,000. Unlike the other two $200,000+ winners, he not only manages to get to the Showcase, but he also wins both his showcase and a progressive jackpot equaling the value of the other prizes won that day, for a grand total of ''$262,743!'' [[note]]And to this day, that's still the biggest total by one contestant for a single day on not just daytime ''Price,'' but for all of the daytime game shows.[[/note]]

* December 24, 2020: This contestant (Anne) wins a $78,132 Porsche 718 Boxster in Golden Road. [[note]]It's also the first time it's been won with the new 2020 set.[[/note]]

* April 5, 2021: In the Showcases, the runner-up (who won $11,000 on the wheel) was off by $301. The top winner (who also won $11,000 cash before this)? OFF BY $133, giving him a DSW and $58,958 in total. And those are the 2 closest bids with a DSW in the Carey era since the $116-$290 result years ago.
* June 24, 2021: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC5wiSGA3wo The first $25,000 win on Punch-A-Bunch in over 3 years.]] It also saved the show from being winless. Brian also won an extra $1,000 at the Big Wheel. Sadly, it ended in a double overbid, because of El Cheapo showcases.

* September 13, 2021: The show's milestone 50th season premieres. It's the longest-running game show for a reason, and they did something big for the premiere week. Every day this week, one game was played for a top prize of ''$1 MILLION.'' Kinda like taking the Million Dollar Spectaculars and putting them into daytime ''Price.'' Sadly, the week was a bust, with only one person winning ANYTHING decent off of a million dollar game, Robert on Monday bailing with the normal top prize of $100,000 on Pay The Rent (all cash amounts were 10x normal play).
* September 17, 2021: One of 2 new games for the 50th season, To The Penny, is played for the first time. It's essentially an updated Penny Ante, except it's played for cash, up to $25,000.[[note]]You have 5 pennies, and you have to correctly guess the price of 5 grocery items. The first item has 2 prices, and then every new item has one additional price added. So, 3 prices for the 2nd item, 4 for the 3rd, 5 for the 4th, and 6 for the 5th and final one. If you want to make it easier, you can use a penny to remove a wrong price, up to using enough pennies to ensure you get the right price. If you make a mistake, you have to use 2 pennies to get another chance. If you get something wrong with less than 2 pennies left, you lose everything. So, you're allowed to bail out with the money you have at any time. The money tree goes like this: $1,500, $3,000, $6,000, $12,000, and $25,000.[[/note]] And since this is on the Awesome page... yep, you guessed it, the first player to ever play this game won the $25,000. He got the first 4 grocery item prices right and didn't use any of his 5 pennies, letting him use all 5 on the final one to leave ONLY the right price and win the $25,000 automatically.

** He gets up on stage and wins $5,000 in Punch-A-Bunch.

* February 25, 2022 (Dream Car Week): For the first time ever, "10 Chances" gets played for a six-digit car. The contestant (Melissa) wins an Audi Quattro on her first chance at it (her sixth chance overall), by correctly unscrambling 915023 as $123,950. She then followed it with a $1 spin and a Showcase win, and she ends her day with the fifth-highest daytime total of $159,040.

** Monday: Someone won a $64,735 Porsche Macan in Lucky $even, we had a big comeback victory on Pathfinder, and that person (Iris) went on to win the Showcase, with hers being worth OVER $72,000 (which included a Jaguar), for a grand total of $106,328. Dang, you don't see a showcase worth that much in daytime often.

** Wednesday: Someone gets the Master Key on Master Key, and wins an Alfa Romeo.

** Friday: Someone sweeps 1/2 Off, and wins an over $50,000 Range Rover, plus $1,000 for getting all 3 pairs of items correct, Pocket Change was won for a $43,672 Volkswagen Atlas, and another big showcase win, this time, worth $62,969, which included a Lincoln Nautilus, for a grand total for the winner of $70,037. Talk about finishing Dream Car Week with a bang!

* December 26, 2022: Sharif, the last player to make it up on stage, wins Make Your Move for a trip to Seattle, a turntable, and a mirror, then wins $11,000 on the wheel, and then becomes the 3rd contestant this season to win both showcases for a total of $86,871, and all this on the day after Christmas. Not bad! Sharif's reaction when he found out he won both is priceless, as he didn't know he won both at the time. He thought he had only won his showcase.
* February 1, 2023 (Primetime): The show celebrates all the "superfans" of The Price is Right. Every pricing game had an "unwritten rule" that most superfans would be aware of. All six pricing games were easily won (the first time in primetime as well), including Money Game (for an Alfa Romeo) being won with both the "El Cheapo" and "front and back" tricks, 10 Chances being won in just five guesses (all of which were written down immediately and followed the zero rule), and Now or Then being won with the first three guesses. In the latter, Drew even asked the contestant to guess the other three items after winning, which he got 2 of the 3 correct.
* February 3, 2023 (Cancer Prevention Special): A contestant (Thomas) runs the table on More or Less, and then becomes the season's 4th DSW, giving him a grand total of $104,018.

* April 19, 2023: Contestant Tony plays 10 Chances for a 3-prong smart plug, a Hewlett-Packard desktop computer and an Aurora Black KIA Forte XS; he sweeps the board with guesses of $30, $570 and $21,530 respectively (the first exacta win on 10 Chances since May 5, 2000 with Bob Barker, and the first-ever with Drew Carey), and even better, he was on in 1997 and had won $5,100 in Plinko. He also ran the now-defunct fan site [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080128162300/http://www.tpir.tv/ TPIR.tv]].

** October 20, 2014: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMoByEc7KZg]] When you get a dollar on the wheel, sometimes you want to break out in a dance. This guy, Eliot, opts to flop on the floor like a fish instead. AND HE GOT ANOTHER $25,000 AS WELL!

* December 22, 2014: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM-j9W9SJsw This guy, Luke]], won a Lexus [=IS350C=] convertible in one of the greatest 3 Strikes comebacks ever, despite having two strikes and no numbers up at one point. He started the game with some wrong number placements and then getting the first 2 strikes early, which ain't a good thing. He was nearly screwed from the start. He then pulls three numbers in a row, and guesses ''all'' of them correctly. He gets his fourth number wrong, but by then, he can fill in the remaining spots, as long as he avoided pulling the last strike... ''and he did''. He later went on to win the Showcase thanks to a smart bid by his girlfriend for a grand total of $80,061.
* December 23, 2014: On the second day of Christmas Week, Giselle Moody became the first person to win [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71ZzrVX_0Rk Golden Road in the Carey era (daytime)]], winning a $73,900 Mercedes-Benz SUV. She also got a free pass to the Showcase since both her opponents went over, (she spun 45 on her only spin) and won it for a grand total of $108,894.

* October 31, 2017: One lucky hero is able to vanquish the evil LosingHorns in this Halloween episode by winning $25,000 on Punch-A-Bunch.

* November 30, 1990: A Plinko contestant scores $21,000 (out of a possible $25,000) by dropping four chips into the $5,000 slot and one in the $1,000 slot. While future contestants have won more money playing Plinko, this is the closest anyone has ever come to officially winning the game.[[note]]WordOfGod says that Plinko is only won if the contestant wins the stated grand prize.[[/note]]

* June 19, 2014: Nearly six years ago, Punch-A-Bunch increased its top prize to $25,000. From that point on, nobody found the top prize...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSEVjowhlbA until now]]. Even more awesome, she got it on her very first punch AND the second hole that she punched had $10,000.

* October 14, 2019: Big Money Week starts off really strong; Contestant Michael Stouber has a shirt that says "Plinko is my cardio" and lo and behold, plays Plinko. On top of that, it's that day's big money game, so it's played for a top prize of $1 MILLION, with the center slot being worth $200,000. It's been tried before, first for $500,000 with a $100,000 center slot in 2013, and then from then on it upgraded to $1 million, with the $200K center slot, but we didn't have much success on nailing the center slot... UNTIL NOW. ''His very first chip lands in the center,'' and he walks away from the game with $202,000. Unlike the other two $200,000+ winners, he not only manages to get to the Showcase, but he also wins both his showcase and a progressive jackpot equaling the value of the other prizes won that day, for a grand total of ''$262,743!'' [[note]]And to this day, that's still the biggest total by one contestant for a single day on not just daytime ''Price,'' but for all of the daytime game shows.[[/note]]

* September 13, 2021: The show's milestone 50th season premieres. It's the longest-running game show for a reason, alright. And they did something big for the premiere week. Every day this week, one game was played for a top prize of ''$1 MILLION.'' Kinda like taking the Million Dollar Spectaculars and putting them into daytime ''Price.'' Sadly, the week was a bust, with only one person winning ANYTHING decent off of a million dollar game, Robert on Monday bailing with the normal top prize of $100,000 on Pay The Rent (all cash amounts were 10x normal play).

* May 25, 2022: Another VERY CLOSE Card Game win, this time by a margin of $7. Made even more awesome since it was won with the $1,000 range card. (Price set was $21,000, ARP: $21,''993.'')

* February 1, 2023 (Primetime): The show celebrates all the "superfans" of The Price is Right. Every pricing game had an "unwritten rule" that most superfans would be aware of. All six pricing games were easily won (the first time in PRIMETIME as well), including Money Game (for an Alfa Romeo) being won with both the "El Cheapo" and "front and back" tricks, 10 Chances being won in just five guesses (all of which were written down immediately and followed the zero rule), and Now or Then being won with the first three guesses. In the latter, Drew even asked the contestant to guess the other three items after winning, which he got 2 of the 3 correct.

* April 19, 2023: Contestant Tony plays 10 Chances for a 3-prong smart plug, a Hewlett-Packard desktop computer and an Aurora Black KIA Forte XS; he sweeps the board with guesses of $30, $570 and $21,530 respectively (the first exacta win on 10 Chances since May 5, 2000 w/Bob Barker, and the first-ever w/Drew Carey), and even better, he was on in 1997 w/Bob Barker and had won $5,100 in Plinko. He also ran the now-defunct fan site TPIR.tv.