The Price Is Right Prop That Hosts Always Keep Hidden On Stage

The game in question is Plinko, one of the most identifiable The Price Is Right games. It first appeared on the show in 1983 (UPI) and is probably considered one of the most famous games on the show – Ranker currently ranks it as the Price Is Right game of all time.

Anyone familiar with “Plinko” knows that it is a game of chance that depends on gravity. After the actual guessing portion of the game, players drop a chip on top of the board and it falls to the ground, bouncing onto various pins on the way down, and where it lands determines the prize. That’s the basic idea, but the chip can occasionally get stuck on a pin. Instead of panicking and going straight to the commercial break, the show’s host has a special prop on hand just in case.

Hidden away on the CBS website is a feature called 9 Secrets Of The Price Is Right’s Plinko. One of those secrets is a hidden “Plinko Stick” that Bob Barker used to keep hidden on stage in case a chip got stuck. In this case he would use the chip to get the chip and the player would get a second chance to drop it. According to the feature, today host Drew Carey keeps the same stick for the same purpose – all to keep any “Plinko” game running as smoothly as possible.