The Ultimate Price is Right Strategy Guide: One Wrong Price

One Wrong Price

Rules

Three prizes are shown, each with a price. One of those prices is not the price of the prize it is next to. If the contestant correctly guesses which price is wrong, they win.

Random fact

It's hard to see on TV, but the stand above the prize the contestant chooses lights up. It's very easy to see in the studio.

Win-loss record

• Actual (seasons 29-46): 195-219 (47.10%)
• What it would be by random chance: 1/3 (33.33%)

The correct prize to choose was...(seasons 40-46)

• On the left: 56 playings (30.43%)
• In the middle: 75 playings (40.76%)
• On the right: 53 playings (28.80%)

Strategy

Two things that have been true since season 44 can help you here:

1. There have been no prizes under $1,000 offered in the game.
2. As PunchABunchFan at golden-road.net pointed out, there haven't been two prizes with the same first digit in their price. For example, there hasn't been a $1,043 prize and a $1,987 prize.

So your strategy starts there. If you see a price of less than $1,000, pick it--it's as good as guaranteed to be the wrong price. Also, if you see two prices with the same first digit, you know one of those prices must be the wrong price.

Beyond that, this game inverts the "pick the endpoints" rule--the center prize is the correct one to choose more often than either the left or the right prize. One the other hand, it's not so much more often that I'd recommend picking the middle as a general strategy; instead, know the price. But if you're clueless, go for the center prize.

Season 49 edit: Both the points above were broken in season 49. There were prizes of value less than $1,000 offered in this game and there were times that two prizes started with the same digit. So sadly, those strategies are no longer as foolproof as they were.