Announcer George Gray Talks Tricks For Spinning The Wheel On The Price Is Right
If you've ever watched the classic TV game show "The Price Is Right," you've probably at least idly imagined how you would perform if you ever received the fateful call to action familiar to TV fans all over the world: "Come on down!" There are plenty of skills you could cultivate if you want to be the ideal contestant on the show – paying attention to price tags, for one — and it might help your luck to get a few practice Plinko rounds in just to get a feel for it.
Then, of course, there's one of the most famous games on "The Price Is Right," known as The Big Wheel. The Big Wheel requires strength, gumption, and good follow-through — and a generous dose of luck isn't going to hurt your prospects either. In a recent interview, no less an authority on the subject than "Price" announcer George Gray gave some advice to prospective wheel spinners out there.
Brute strength alone isn't everything, according to Gray
George Gray has been the permanent announcer on "The Price Is Right" since 2011, so you can bet he's seen plenty of price tag gladiators step up to The Big Wheel and make their luck. He took a few minutes to speak to CinemaBlend in advance of the last stop of the show's "Come On Down Tour!" in May of 2022. Naturally, the topic of The Big Wheel came up.
The goal of The Big Wheel is to get as close to $1 as you can without going over. When asked if he had any tips for future Wheel spinners, Gray's first bit of advice was that it's not all about brute strength.
"I would say a lot of people just really, they try to rip it off the bearings, you know, like big guys, mostly guys. Big muscly guys will try to rip it off the Wheel." But of course, the Wheel isn't meant to be a show of strength, but a game of chance, and Gray even went a step further to say that sometimes less strength means greater success. "I think by accident, a lot of older women that don't have a ton of upper body strength, they can get really lucky because the Wheel has to go around once, otherwise, it doesn't count," the announcer explained. "And if it happens to be sitting on $1, when they spin it, I've seen it happen more often than not that they just, they're using all their strength, and it just hits $1. Just because they got it around one time."
Then there are the superstitious players, who try to bless the wheel in order to improve their luck. "Some people kiss the Wheel before," said Gray.