Since the 1970s, The Price is Right has been helping people make their dreams come true and giving out cash prizes and other prizes. Even though the show has been on for a long time, it still has firsts. After a viral blooper showed model Manuela Arbelaez giving away a car by accident, she talked about it.
Manuela Arbelaez, who had been a model on The Price is Right for six years at the time, did something that had never been done before on the show. A contestant had three chances to choose a price tag that would either show she won a car or not. After the contestant only said her first choice, Arbelaez accidentally showed the winning one. And it was a priceless moment:
Even though it wasn’t a very bad mistake, she knew right away what she’d done and tried to hide the “WIN” card, but it was too late. After being on the show for so long, having that happen on TV could have been a nightmare, but Manuela Arbelaez just laughed it off, and it seemed like everyone else did too.
In an interview with Inside Edition following the airing of the incident, Manuela Arbelaez explained what happened, noting that the buzzer usually goes off when someone loses, and it was natural instinct for her to reveal the winning price tag. And while she was terrified about what happened, she looked on the bright side of things:
I felt terrible. I was embarrassed because I thought, A. This is my last day at work, and B. They were going to take it out of my paycheck every week. We’re all just people at the end of the day, and I made a very expensive mistake that made someone very happy.
In the clip, she looks embarrassed because she tries to hide behind the nearest piece of set that will cover her, but it didn’t seem like a big deal. The situation seemed funny to everyone at The Price is Right, and Arbelaez was able to get help from host Drew Carey and the rest of the team. She told me:
Drew could not have been more helpful, and the producers were the same way. They came to me and told me how much they liked it. They thought it was the funniest thing that had ever happened, so they embraced it and said, “We’re not going to pick it out, we’re going to air it as it happened.”
Even though this was a first for Price is Right, Manuela Arbelaez is not the only person to accidentally show a winning card on a game show. Pat Sajak made a mistake in the Bonus Round of Wheel of Fortune a few years ago when he opened the winning envelope as soon as the wheel landed on it. Usually, the winner’s envelope isn’t opened until the contestant solves or doesn’t solve the last puzzle. So, even if a show has been on the air for a long time, mistakes can still happen. It just shows that everyone is fallible.
Bloopers are common on game shows and can be a lot of fun for people watching at home. Sometimes it’s the contestant’s fault because they didn’t figure out a very easy puzzle or clue, or it’s the host or model’s fault. Even though it can’t be stopped, the best thing to do is just laugh about it. Mistakes happen, and they can make watching episodes even more fun. Check out our 2023 TV premiere schedule to see what you can watch now and in the next few weeks.