A little background of the Real Plinko Game: Hooray! Plinko is by far the most celebrated and enjoyed pricing game ever played on The Price is Right. The game is simple. A contestant is shown four small prizes. For each prize, s/he sees two digits, but only one is right. Either the first digit shown is the correct first digit or the last digit shown is the correct last digit. For each small item guessed correctly, the contestant wins a chip. Bob gives the contestant a free chip just for playing the game, so five chips can be earned. The contestant climbs to the top of the Plinko board and drops the chips on a pegged board. The pegs send the chip skyrocketing all over the board until they land in slots representing money amounts at the bottom. The slots are, from left to right; $100, $500, $1000, $0, $5000, $0, $1000, $500, $100. A maximum of $25,000 can be won. After all the chips have dropped, the contestant wins whatever money s/he has earned to that point.

In August, 1996, CBS aired a 25th Anniversary Special in primetime to celebrate The Price is Right’s long run. On that special episode, Plinko was played with a special $10,000 slot replacing the $5000 slot. This slot became $10,000 permanently during the 27th season, meaning that a total of $50,000 can be won.

When the highest slot was $5,000, the maximum amount ever won on Plinko was $21,000. With the advent of the $10,000 slot, a record of $23,000 has been achieved. Unfortunately, an all-zero score has also been obtained. A “win” in Plinko is technically defined as the perfect score ($25,000 formerly, now $50,000). So Plinko has technically never been “won.” In a show with five other pricing game wins and a non-perfect Plinko playing, Bob will NOT declare the show a perfect show! However, most TPiR fans consider any contestant lucky enough to hit the big slot at least once to be a winner in this game.

On the short-lived Doug Davidson version, the $500 slots were replaced by $2,500 slots.

In the event a Plinko chip should get stuck on a peg, Bob has his trusty Plinko stick which he enjoys using greatly. The chip will knock the peg down the board, in which case that chip won’t count and the contestant can use it again.

The premiere of Plinko occurred on January 3, 1983, which makes it a great day in game show history. Interestingly enough, three new game shows premiered on NBC that same exact day; Just Men!, Hit Man, and $ale of the Century. Although the first two held only 13-week runs, $ale of the Century stayed on the air for over six years.

Plinko is definitely the pricing game most TPiR fans would give their right leg to play. The producers are well aware of this and drum the introduction to the game up with a huge fanfare. The crowd goes wild when anyone hits the big slot on the board; Lord only knows what would happen should someone nail the game for $50,000.

On the Navy nighttime special in 2002, the $10,000 slot was made into $20,000, making a $100,000 win possible. On the Army nighttime special in 2002, $40,000 was won. – From Game Show Central

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