So we're starting a fresh month, which makes this a fine chance to do my curious updates on The Price Is Right Showcase Showdown and Showcase winners. This covers the episodes from the 3rd of February through the 28th of February and, remarkably, there weren't any reruns or interruptions during that stretch. Also from the schedule it doesn't look like they're skipping any episodes for March Madness, so, I guess basketball isn't on CBS this year or something?
| First | Second | Third | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Month | 12 | 15 | 13 |
| Season | 70 | 71 | 67 |
Anyway, the Showcase Showdown as you see kept working its way to a statistical tie and pretty near a literal tie for who wins the thing. Meanwhile, in the Showcase, here's my track of whether the winner is the first- or the second-revealed showcase. The ``Unforced'' reveal --- where neither of the contestants overbid, or bid a dollar, or had a double showcase win, or something else that would give away the game seconds too early --- particularly surprised me for February.
| First Revealed | Second Revealed | Double Overbid | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Month | 12 | 6 | 2 |
| All | 48 | 42 | 10 |
| Unforced Month | 0 | 4 | - |
| Unforced Season | 12 | 31 | - |
There've been, I think, a surprising number of double overbids --- including one for the Valentine's Day show with couples playing as teams and which produced an awkward ``well, we don't want to end the show on a downer'' moment. (Drew Carey explained after the double overbid that everyone in the audience was getting a gift card from something or other; undoubtedly, had someone won, that would've been revealed before either Showcase result was announced.) It also seems to me like there've been many cases of a person just barely overbidding --- like, being a couple hundred dollars over --- but since I haven't been tracking that I can't say whether that's a curious new trend this season.
Trivia: Henry Ford's ``Fordlandia'' colony in Brazil, built in the late 1920s and early 1930s (near where tire rubber would be produced), had for its time the only golf course in the Amazon basin. Source: 1493: Uncovering The New World Columbus Created, Charles C Mann. (Ford also had Methodist churches built, but I can't say how common they were.)
Currently Reading: All Clear, Connie Willis.
