On the Spot

On the Spot
Premiere Date	January 27, 2003 (#2411K)
Pricing Game Location	Center Stage
Previous Premiered Pricing Game	Step Up
Next Premiered Pricing Game	Time is Money
Finale Date	November 5, 2004 (#3035K)

On the Spot is a pricing game played for a car.

Gameplay

• The contestant began in the center of a large circle (the "spot") on the stage. The circle had three colored paths leading from it to the outside of the spot (blue, yellow and pink); each path consisted of three steps marked with prices. These prices corresponded with six small prizes that were shown to the contestant. The contestant selected a path and moved to the first step. They had to select the prize whose price matched the step they were on. If they selected correctly, they won the small prize and repeated the process for the second and third steps.
• If they guessed all three prizes correctly, they moved off the spot and won the car. However, if they made a mistake on any prize, they returned to the center of the spot and had to begin again with a different path. If the contestant made mistakes on all three paths, the game ended in a loss.
• There were always some duplicate prices amongst the three paths; if a contestant had correctly guessed a price on a previous path, they were allowed to skip that price on subsequent paths.

History

• The circles displaying the prices on the spot initially displayed the price twice in identical font facing both the contestant and the audience. After the second playing on February 3, 2003 (#2421K), during which host Bob Barker mistook an upside-down "68" for an "89", the circles were changed to display a large price, facing the audience, with a much smaller price behind the circle, facing the contestant.
• The paths used the following patterns for the prices: A-B-D, B-C-E, and C-A-F. On September 30, 2004 (#2984K), the patterns were changed to A-B-C, C-A-D, and B-C-A to make the game easier. While successful, the effort still wasn't enough to save the game, and the revised patterns made some prizes impossible to win.
• The game was played perfectly four times.

Trivia

• The most number of times this game was played in any season was 13 (season 32), while the least amount of times this game was played in any season was 2 (season 33).
• This and Step Up were the only pricing games created in the 2000s to be retired. As a matter of fact, this was the most recently debuted game to ever be retired (replacing Time is Money, after that game was reactivated in 2014), and is one of two retired pricing games to have been played only in the 21st century (Step Up is the other). It is the most recent pricing game that has never been hosted by Drew Carey.
• This was also the name of a local game show from Oregon that aired on KGW hosted by Larry Blackmar from 1985 until 1988 and a syndicated game show (albeit with a different format) hosted by Eric Schwartz (later narrated by Pete Sepenuk) from 2011 until 2012.
• This was also the name of a short-lived sketch comedy series {a.k.a. Untitled Jeff Davis Project} where it mainly mixed scripted sketches with improvisational comedy that aired on the now-defunct television network The WB (which later merged with an equally defunct television network UPN in order to form The CW since 2006) that aired from March 20 until April 17, 2003. Additionally, one of the former guest announcers of Price Jeff Davis was a cast member on this show in general.
• Like Buy or Sell, Magic Number, Race Game, Hole in One (or Two), Ten Chances, Take Two, Line 'Em Up, Time is Money, or Dice Game, On the Spot has never been the first pricing game in the game slotting list because it needs time to start up and the game could be played no earlier than second on the show.
  • On the Spot has also never been the fourth or sixth pricing game to be played on the show.

Gallery

To view the gallery, click here.

Retirement

• After its last playing on November 5, 2004 (#3035K), On the Spot was removed from the pricing game rotation for re-tooling, but the game was officially retired in early 2005 due to confusing rules, long playing time and a win-loss rate of 11-15. It is the newest pricing game (in terms of debut date, not retirement date) to be retired, barring any games that may have been "retired" at one point but subsequently unretired later.