If you say you've never dreamed of spinning the big wheel on Price is Right, you are a liar. Nothing seems more satisfying in life than hitting the $1 spin and heading to the Showcase Showdown!
Of course, to get to that point, you have to be good at all the other games too. For Terry Kniess, he spent his whole life preparing to be on the show and it finally paid off. Kniess guessed the exact amount of his showcase, meaning he won both prize packs. However, when people saw his bid they got a little suspicious of how he managed to know EXACTLY how much it all cost.
Kniess has job experience as both a weatherman and a casino surveillance person. He spent a lot of time learning how to spot patterns and use them to predict what will happen. The 60-year-old and his wife, Linda, watched Price is Right every day for four months before he appeared on the iconic game show. Linda, who has a love of math, helped her husband notice the little things to help him win.
So how did he knew what to bid?awa
In an interview with Esquire, Kneiss says he and his wife sat and studied every episode of the Price is Right and came to a very telling conclusion: everything repeats itself.
"Terry Kniess studied prices. He saw that virtually every prize on The Price Is Right, from a pack of gum to the flashiest car, repeated. He and Linda memorized their values," the article said.
Regardless of the item, the price always stayed the same. When Terry made it to Contestant's Row, he was tasked with pricing a Big Green Egg smoker/grill. He did it, and he did it perfectly.
Terry Kniess went on to the showcase showdown, where he used his studies and pattern identifying skills to figure out his showcase would be approximately $23,000. As for the last three digits, he decided to make it personal: his wedding date, April 7. (7-4) and the month of his wife's birthday, March (3.)
In total, his bid was $23,743.
And in total, his showcase cost $23,743.
Kniess won both showcases, with a difference of $0. But of course, success does not come without controversy. Kniess was accused of cheating, and at one point even Drew Carey was dragged in to the scandal with people claiming he gave Kniess the answer.
"If there's one thing I've learned through all this," Terry says, "it's that there's such a thing as being too perfect."
In the end, Terry took home a package of prizes worth $56,437.41. It included four luxury vacations"”to South Africa, Scotland, Chicago, Canada. The Kniesses sold a camper, a pool table, and a karaoke machine to cover the taxes on their prizes. They kept the smoker.
Since his iconic bid, Terry has essentially forced producers to make changes on Price is Right. They no longer use the same brands of products, and they make small detail changes on larger prizes like cars. For example, adding a certain stereo system can increase or decrease the value. Contestants can still get an idea of certain costs, but memorizing them is no longer an option.
Terry and Linda don't watch the Price is Right anymore, but I guess once you've perfectly beaten the entire show, the novelty kind of wears off!
