The Price Is Right fans were left scratching their heads on June 26 when a contestant left the show partway through. Kathy Young lost out on a car and then disappeared, which caused host Drew Carey to explain her absence.
Young won the third item up for bid, which was workout equipment, costing $749, on the penultimate episode of the season. She bid $625 and got to come to the stage to play Gridlock. Young screamed and then calmly walked to the stage to meet Drew Carey.
The game show contestant thanked the show when they told her she had the chance to win a 2025 Toyota Corolla LE. In Gridlock, The Price Is Right contestant has to correctly guess the price of the car in order to win it. The first number is given, and then they have to pick one blue car and one orange car, which both have two numbers on it. They are the next four numbers in the car. If the numbers are right, they get to take the car home.
Young was given two as the first number. She then turned to the audience for advice on the second. Young picked 41 as the second set. She was right and moved on to the last set of numbers. For the last two numbers, Young picked 20.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDVBvOJ3JIU
This made the price of the car $24,120. Young was wrong, but got one more chance to correct herself. Between 57 and 95, Young chose 95, making the vehicle $24,195. She was wrong, so she did not win the $24,157 car.
Carey said that she was going to spin the wheel when the game show came back from commercial, but she wasn’t there when it returned. “We only have two players for the Showcase Showdown because contestant Kathy had an emergency and she was unable to continue,” the host shared. “She’s not going to be able to continue. We’re going to have two spinners. Good luck to them.”
As Brigit spun the wheel, Carey said, “We hope Kathy is ok!”
Brigit went over, and Tawab wound up winning the Showdown.
At the end of the Showcase, the host said again, “Sending our best to Kathy. We hope she’s ok!” During the closing credits, the following update appeared: “A contestant on this episode could not continue, but will be receiving their prizes.”
“I’ve never in the history of watching this show seen 2 contestants at the wheel. I hope it was just an upset stomach or something,” a Reddit user said.
“That was a first,” said another.
“I hope she’s ok. Unless it was an extreme situation, they could have just brought the wheel out and did the first showcase showdown like they did under the old taping format,” added a third.
“Yeah, I never heard of this before either. hope whatever happened was mild and Kathy’s okay and well,” wrote another.
The Price Is Right released a statement to TV Insider about Young. They didn’t reveal what happened to the contestant, but are inviting her back.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, one of our contestants was unfortunately unable to complete her time on a recent episode of The Price Is Right. We are pleased to share that Kathy has been invited to return as our special member of our audience for a future show taping. We look forward to the opportunity to welcome her back and extend our sincere thanks to Kathy —and to all of our loyal viewers—for being such an incredible part of our television family.
-The Price Is Right Production.”
Young will have to return for an episode on Season 54 as Season 53 wrapped up on Friday, June 27.
The Price Is Right, Season 54, returns this fall, CBS
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