- That's feigned surprise, in case you were curious.
A story about The Price is Right is a story about Drew Carey and thusly a story about Cleveland. Even if we didnt' have that tenuous connection to Northeast Ohio, we'd still point you in the direction of this piece from Esquire.
Chris Jones tells the tale of Terry Kniess, a brilliant math-minded fan of the show who used his obsessive study and perceptive eye to nail a perfect bid on a winning showcase. It really irked Drew Carey and the producers.
Of course, there's much more to the saga, including how Terry changed the show forever, all of which you'll gleefully discover when you read the full story. Here's just a snippet when he first gets a hint the show could be had:
The Price Is Right. Here was a perfect challenge. It fit the ways their brains worked. They began watching the show in earnest. Before they stepped foot in the Bob Barker Studio, they were going to be prepared; "Good TV is rehearsed TV," Terry likes to say. For four months during the summer of 2008, they recorded The Price Is Right every morning and watched it together in bed every night, Terry hunting for patterns and Linda doing the math. It didn't take long for them to find their edge. In The Price Is Right's greatest strength, he and Linda also found its greatest weakness: It had survived all those years because it seemed never to change. Even when Drew Carey replaced Bob Barker — the show's own version of Vatican II — he rocked a similar skinny microphone. Behind all the screaming and seeming chaos, there was a precise and nostalgic order. Terry says he first sat upright in bed when a distinctive grill called the Big Green Egg came up for bid again and again. It was always $1,175.
