CBS to Spin “Plinko” Off into its Own One-Hour Show
Los Angeles, CA – CBS announced today that they are planning on taking “Plinko”, the most popular “pricing game” on its hit show “The Price is Right”, and spinning it off into its own one-hour television show.
The move comes in response to the enormous fervor for the “pricing game” that has recently reached an all time high. CBS call centers have been receiving thousand of phone calls every day demanding more air time be given to “Plinko” during “The Price is Right”. Even more astonishing, a group of people have set up a tent city outside CBS headquarters and vowed not to leave until “Plinko’s” air-time is doubled or tripled.
Roger Garfield, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Plinko Contestants (NAAPC), an advocacy group composed of Americans who played “Plinko” when they were contestants on “The Price is Right”, declared this day monumental, saying, “Now more and more Americans will be able to feel the electricity in their veins that only ‘Plinko’ can create. Next to the day I actually played ‘Plinko’, this is the greatest day of my life.”
“Plinko” was created by former “The Price is Right” executive producer Frank Wayne and debuted on January 3, 1983. Host Bob Barker was noted as saying that the name was derived from the “plink” sound the chips made as they filtered their way down the board.
The concept of “Plinko” is simple, and all it requires to be played are Plinko chips and a Plinko board. To begin, each contestant is given one Plinko chip. However, they then compete in a “side-game” to win up to four additional chips. Chips are won when a contestant, shown a two digit price with only one of the digits being correct, successfully guesses whether the first digit or the second digit is the correct one. The Plinko board is made up of pegs, with each row offset from the previous row. The bottom of the board has nine slots and is printed symmetrically with the values (from outside slot to center slot) $100, $500, $1,000, $0, $10,000.
After the “side game” is complete, the contestant positions a Plinko chip against the top of the board and lets it fall into the pegs. Because the rows are offset, the chip filters down the board in a random pattern and ends in one of the valued slots at the bottom. The contestant wins the amount of money on that slot, and the values are added up for all their chips.
“Plinko” is scheduled to premiere in the Spring of 2009, and according to CBS executives, if it does well in the ratings, it will pave the way for “Hole in One, or Two” to also be spun off into its own show.
