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Cover Up is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. It is played for a car.
The game debuted on the Season 22 premiere on September 13, 1993. However, the episode was never seen in most of the United States; it was preempted by a CBS News Special Report. The show was broadcast in a small number of East Coast markets that were airing The Price Is Right an hour early at the time. CBS considered it officially aired and never reran it, and Game Show Network never reran this episode when it aired TPIR episodes throughout December 1996-April 2000. This leads to the fact that most viewers refer to it as the first playing on its second playing, and very few viewers know the Season 22 premiere.
Gameplay
A false price is shown on the game board. Alternative digits are provided above each incorrect digit in the price - two options for the first digit, three for the second, and so on up to six options for the fifth digit. The contestant must choose an alternative for each digit and cover up the original incorrect digit.
Once all five digits have been covered, the host asks if the price given is correct. If answer is negative as signified by a buzzer, any digits that are right are lit up, and the contestant is directed to cover up each of the remaining incorrect digits. This sequence then repeats as necessary. The game ends when the contestant either wins by having the entire price correct, or loses by having no new correct numbers in a round of guessing.
On January 11, 1995, a contestant named Clara became the first contestant to lose Cover Up by getting all five numbers wrong on the first try. This is the only time so far that that has ever happened.[1]
On the May 21, 2008, $1,000,000 Spectacular, Cover Up was chosen as the Million Dollar Game. To win the bonus, the contestant had to correctly set the price of the car in one attempt.
Strategy
A possible strategy is to intentionally choose an incorrect digit for the first or second positions in the price, which are usually the easiest to guess. This allows the player to guess the numbers correctly in a later round, and ensure the game continues to at least a third round of guessing.
