Hot Seat

Hot Seat
Premiere Date	September 23, 2016 (#7615K)
Location	Center Stage
Previous Pricing Game Premiere	Vend-O-Price
Next Pricing Game Premiere	Gridlock!

Hot Seat is a small item pricing game on the stage played for $20,000 which debuted on September 23, 2016 (#7615K).

Gameplay

The contestant will sit in the titular “Hot Seat” and be shown five small prizes, each with a price. The contestant has 35 seconds to hit a red button if the price is higher (hot) or a blue button if it’s lower (cold) than the prices shown. The Hot Seat will move the player down the line behind each item. After locking in all five guesses or running out of time, whichever comes first, the contestant is told that all the right guesses will be revealed first before any wrong guesses, but in no particular order otherwise. The Hot Seat moves to each item one at a time to reveal its price. Each right guess moves that contestant to the next cash prize on the ladder ($500, $2,500, $5,000, $10,000, and $20,000). The contestant can walk away with their winnings at any time because if a wrong guess is revealed and the contestant goes for it, the game ends and all cash accumulated is lost, but the contestant gets to keep any small prizes won up to that point.

History

• Hot Seat debuted on September 23, 2016 (#7615K) and was won.
• On October 5, 2016 (#7633K), the game's second playing, contestant Gaila Pinkston-Phillips had to decide whether or not to go on before the next item was revealed, opting to bail out with $5,000 on the third level. Had she kept going, she would have had a shot at the big one. She had everything else correct and blew a chance at $20,000. Even though this was taped before the "premiere" episode, it did not become the usual format.
• On October 27, 2016 (#7664K), as part of Season 45's "Big Money Week," the top prize was $100,000 with the other prizes on the ladder worth $2,500, $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000. Contestant April Hayes bailed out with $25,000. On October 9, 2018 (#8442K), as part of Season 47's "Big Money Week," it was played again for $100,000, this time with contestant Hannah Williams bailing out with $10,000. Both contestants made the right choice.
• On November 1, 2016 (#7672K), the game experienced its first complete loss. On that playing, the losing horns were not played.
• On November 21, 2016 (#7701K), as a part of "Chef's Week," contestant Nicholas Tinkle bailed out with $10,000. Also, Hot Seat's actual retail prices have "Higher" or "Lower" printed beneath them, similar to that of Bonus Game. The pictures seen below are there for full proof.
• On December 16, 2016 (#7725K), February 2, 2017 (#7794K), February 28, 2017 (#7832K), April 26, 2017 (#7913K), May 26, 2017 (#7955K), June 15, 2017 (#7984K), August 21, 2017 (#8001), December 11, 2017 (#8121K), February 12, 2018 (#8211K), June 25, 2018 (#8524K), January 30, 2019 (#8593K), April 10, 2020 (#9095K), April 23, 2020 (#9114K), and December 2, 2020 (#9203K), a contestant bailed out with $5,000. The names of the contestants in these respective episodes are Diane Arnold, Breanna Parton, Gabrielle Garcia, John Funk, Dia Prioleau, Millard Teylor, Joshua Levine, Michele Pugliese, Leisha Williams-Curtis, Nicolas Guerrero, Brandon Howell, and Lori Steele.
• On January 16, 2017 (#7771K), contestant Nancy Rich bailed out with $10,000. Had she kept going, she would have had a shot at the big one. Like Gaila on October 5, 2016 (#7633K), Nancy had everything correct and blew a chance at $20,000.
• On October 19, 2017 (#8054K), contestant Nichole Gonzalez stopped at $2,500. It was then revealed that she had picked all prizes correctly and would have won $20,000 if she had continued.
• On February 27, 2018 (#8232K), contestant Selita Brewer made history as the first to get the pricing of all five prizes wrong, not winning anything. It was also the game's first-ever wipeout.
• On February 14, 2019 (#8624K), the game was played as the first pricing game despite needing a lot of time to start up.
• On April 5, 2019 (#8695K, aired out of order on March 29), the game experienced its fourth win.
• Starting on April 5, 2021 (#9381K), the game doesn't have the $20,000 intro.
• The game has had six wins (excluding one primetime win), most recently on January 16, 2024 (#0452L).
• The game was lost (excluding one primetime loss) (no money won) 28 times, most recently on May 30, 2024 (#0644L).

Solutions

For a list of solutions, the contestants chose (or in most cases, should have chosen) to win the $20,000, see Hot Seat/Solutions.

Trivia

• Like Rat Race, Pass the Buck, Back to '75 or Double Cross, Hot Seat has never been the second pricing game in the lineup because it needs time to start up. As such, with the exception of February 14, 2019 (#8624K), in which it was played first, Hot Seat can't be played earlier than third.
• Hot Seat was also the name of a short-lived daytime game show hosted by Jim Peck and was created and produced by Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley that ran on ABC as a pilot on January 17, 1976 and as a series from July 12, 1976-October 22, 1976. Luckily, the game show didn’t file a lawsuit, so the pricing game’s name didn’t change... unlike Check Game.
• It was also the name used for a contestant's chair on the hit international game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? or Millionaire for short. Also, the money ladder was similar to the money tree on Millionaire.
• Hot Seat was also a segment on Game Show Network's Baggage with Jerry Springer.
• The most number of times this game was played in any season was 17 (season 45), while the least number of times this game was played in any season was 8 (season 49).
• This game has similarities to More or Less.
• Hot Seat is one of only three pricing games where none of the show's models are involved (Grand Game and To The Penny being the other two).
• Due to the removal of its intro during Season 49, Hot Seat is the only game whose main prize is not described by the announcer. Drew does his own spiel at the start of the game to show the contestant the possible cash prizes they can win. This and Gas Money are the only games where the cash prize was announced by Drew instead of the announcer
• Unlike most other cash games, Hot Seat does not use the clangs and whoops when it is fully won, instead utilizing the regular dings.
• Like Golden Road, Magic Number, Credit Card, or Safe Crackers, the game is shown and then is zoomed out to the contestant and Drew.
• On special episodes where there are couples or other contestant pairs, a separate, wider Hot Seat is used to allow both contestants to sit in it. One of its notable differences is the timer is positioned on the panel instead of on the corner of the seat itself.

Strategy

Drew states that the seat will only visit the correctly-priced items first before any incorrectly-priced ones, but in no particular order otherwise; the seat will never go to a prize with an incorrect answer before going to one with a correct answer. So if you're certain that one of the prizes that hasn't been shown yet is correctly identified, but you're not sure about the one you're currently on, go for it.

Odds

• The odds of either winning the $20,000 or getting every item wrong-- the latter of which Selita Brewer did-- are 1-in-32 or 3.125%.

Gallery

To view the gallery, click here.

YouTube Videos

Hot Seat Premiere (September 23, 2016, #7615K)
Hot Seat for $100,000 (October 27, 2016, #7664K)
Hot Seat's First Loss (November 1, 2016, #7672K)
Hot Seat's Second Loss (December 30, 2016, #7745K)
Hot Seat's Second Win (November 10, 2017, #8085K)
Hot Seat's Third Win (November 21, 2017, #8102K)
First Early Exit/Dismal/Disastrous Playing of Hot Seat (February 27, 2018, #8232K)
2nd Hot Seat playing for $100,000 (October 9, 2018, #8442K)
Hot Seat's Fourth Win (April 5, 2019, #8695K, aired out of order on March 29)