The Ultimate Price is Right Strategy Guide: Switcheroo

Switcheroo

Rules

A car is shown as are four small prizes. The prices of all 5 prizes are revealed with their 10s digit missing, and the 5 missing values are shown to the contestant. The contestant has 30 seconds to decide which number goes with which prize. They are shown how many they have correct; if they don't have all 5 correct, the contestant is given another 30 seconds to make changes if they so desire.

Random fact

When this game was played on the 1980s nighttime version of the show, it had different think music. Also, the set at the time didn't have a clock on it. You can see a playing here:

Win-loss record

• Actual (seasons 29-47): 37-143 (20.56%)
• What it would be by random chance: 31/150 (20.67%) (This assumes you make changes unless you get all 5 numbers right on the first try.)

The correct number to choose for the car was...(seasons 40-47)

• 1: 25 playings (33.33%)
• 2: 18 playings (24%)
• 3: 25 playings (33.33%)
• 4: 3 playings (4%) (all in season 47)
• 5: 0 playings (0%)
• 6: 4 playings (5.33%) (never more than once in a season)
• 7: 0 playings (0%)
• 8: 0 playings (0%)
• 9: 0 playings (0%)

Strategy

Choose a low number for the price of the car!!! It's almost always 1, 2, or 3, though they did sneak in some 4's in season 47. Also, the missing number is rarely the same as the digit to its left or right; that's only happened 7 times in the 75 playings from seasons 40-47. Beyond that, you should use process of elimination to figure out the correct digit for the car. To do this, figure out the prices of the small prizes first. Put those blocks in, and then put the block for the car's price last. As for whether to make changes or not after the first attempt, that's up to you; if you have three right, the numbers say you shouldn't change the price of the car since you have a 60% chance of that being right, but if you have two or fewer numbers right, you should change the price of the car. But that is of course assuming you placed the blocks randomly.