Lucky $even

Lucky $even is a pricing game on the American television game show "The Price Is Right". Debuting on August 28, 1973, it is played for a car.

Game play

The contestant is given seven $1 bills to start the game, and is shown the first digit in the car's price. They must then guess the remaining digits one at a time. After each digit is guessed, the actual digit is revealed. The contestant must pay the difference between their guess and the actual digit in dollars. (e.g.: a guess of 5 when the digit is 7 would cost $2). Contestants do not lose any money if they get a digit exactly right. If the contestant has at least $1 remaining after the last digit is revealed, they may buy the car for $1, and receive any leftover money. If the contestant loses all of their money at any point, the game ends.

History

Originally, cars played for in this game had just four digits, and no free digits were given. During the 1986 prime time specials, the contestant was given the last digit, and then had to guess the first four. When the five-digit format was introduced to the daytime show shortly thereafter, the rule was changed to give the first digit.

The original Lucky Seven board was blue with black numbers. Its current board, which first appeared in the first half of 1986, is purple with gold numbers. The current font for the numbers (Times New Roman) debuted in the fall of 2001.

The car is not actually driven out on stage - it is put in neutral and pushed out by stagehands. However, there have been rare occasions through the years when a model steered poorly or did not brake in time and crashed into the set.

Since the early '80s, there has been an unspoken rule that zeros are not used in Lucky $even.

This was the first pricing game played on Drew Carey's first taped episode, taped August 15, 2007.

On the May 14, 2008 Million Dollar Spectacular, Lucky $even offered a Porsche Cayman Coupe, the first Porsche featured on the show in over 16 years.

Lucky Seven was the sole game introduced in the second nighttime season hosted by Dennis James.

Foreign versions of Lucky $even

Lucky $even is played on numerous versions of "The Price Is Right" around the world, sometimes with minor differences.

In the UK, specifically during the Bruce Forsyth and Joe Pasquale eras, instead having the game setup behind the set's doors, the car's windshield displays four numbers that are attached to clingfilm. Zeros may be used in the game, and unlike most other versions, there is a rule stating that no digits in the price repeat. This version of the game is played with £1 coins, which replaced £1 notes in 1983. During the Leslie Crowther and Bob Warman runs, the game had only three digits in the price (hence no car), with panels covering the numbers on a table, and instead of seven £1 coins, they played with seven tokens. It has the same title as the US version.

In Australia, specifically during Larry Emdur's reign as host, the game was called "One Dollar Deal". The actual rules were identical to the US versions (although like the UK, zeros may be used, but like the US, the numbers may repeat and had five digits in the price—unlike in the US, though, the first digit is not given for free); the game was even played with seven $1 notes, even though Australian $1 notes have not been manufactured in since 1984, when they were replaced by $1 coins. Instead of having doors covering the numbers and sliding to reveal them, the doors flipped over to reveal the numbers. As in the US, the car came in from the left, but the game was revealed behind a big clamshell, since the Aussie version's set only had two doors. On Ian Turpie's versions during the 1980s, the game had the same title has the US version, and the setup was similar to the American setup, and it too, was played with seven $1 notes.

Germany's "Der Preis ist heiß" followed the same rules as the American version, including giving the first digit in the prices of 5-digit cars for free. The only notable difference was that the game was played with seven DM10 notes, as DM1 notes never existed. While the game prop was played behind the third door, the car came out from the second door, facing the audience, instead of coming from the left like the US show. There, the game was known as "Die Verfliexte Sieben" ("The Darned Seven").

Canada's French-language "Misez Juste" had the same rules for Lucky $even as the American version, but it was usually played for trips rather than cars. This incarnation of the game is somewhat notable for using a light-up board to display the price, something that is not normally done for Lucky $even. A sign displaying the price on it was flipped to ensure the operators of the light-up board weren't cheating. The game was played with seven "loonies" (Canada's term for their $1 coin, which replaced their $1 note in 1987). The game there was called "Pour Un Dollar" ("For One Dollar").

On Vietnam's "Hay Chon Gia Dung", the game, which is known as "So 7 May Man" ("Lucky Seven"), follows the same rules as the US, but instead of ₫7, the game is played with seven discs, and only four digits are used.

Perhaps the most significant difference was found in "Gioco Dell'8" ("Game of 8") on Italy's "OK, il Prezzo è Giusto!", which contained an actual rule change: the contestant was given "eight discs" (not ₤7), meaning that he could miss the numbers in the price by a total of seven instead of six without losing. This was taken even further on "Les 10 Billets" ("The Ten Tickets") on France's "Le Juste Prix", where contestants were given "ten tickets" (not 7₣) and could thus miss the digits by a total of nine, as well as in "Trece de la Suerte" ("Lucky Thirteen") on Mexico's "Atínale al Precio", where the contestant was given MX$13 and, as such, could miss by 12. Of these three versions, Italy's and Mexico's were always played for cars, while France's rarely was.