Terry found his home (where else?) at the casinos.

He and Linda loved Las Vegas, and they didn’t want to chase promotions around the country-something that TV presenters need to do in order to keep their careers on track. Staying in the business involved too much moving. “Other than The Price is Right, winning those was probably the biggest moment of my life,” Terry told Esquire. It was almost as if Terry and Linda were training their entire lives to take on The Price Is Right.īy the 2000s, Terry had left his job as a meteorologist, although he left with some hardware: two Southeast Regional Emmy Awards. Linda got a job running scheduling for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, an extraordinary task of arithmetic and organization. His wife, meanwhile, was the numbers person. Trained as a meteorologist, he developed an unparalleled ability to predict future weather patterns. The answer takes us back to the epicenter of chance and fortune: Las Vegas, Nevada.ĭecades before Terry’s historic The Price Is Right win, he was predicting the weather on the local news in Las Vegas. Luck, Skill, and a Lot of PreparationĪs Carey must have asked himself that day in the studio, who exactly is this Terry guy? Why was it his destiny to break a game that had been nothing if not predictable for half a century? Instead, Carey grit his teeth while announcing success that seemed too good to be true. This was a historic moment on The Price is Right, and longtime fans would expect the host to flip. Still, Terry recognized a pattern: He noticed that the value of each prize package fell into a predictable range. Since the prizes for the showcase differed each episode, there was really no way to memorize how much these packages might actually be worth. At this point, his plan relied on a second bit of luck. Terry nailed the price with a perfect bid. Host Drew Carey asked Terry to bid on a Green Egg smoker, so Terry obliged-and nailed the price with a perfect bid of $1,775.Ī premium grilling appliance would be a nice win for any The Price is Right fan, but more importantly, the bid got Terry into the Showcase Showdown. He was in.Īnd when Terry got called down to Contestant’s Row, he was ready. Sure enough, the producer called Terry’s name. Before the show, Terry filled out his registration card, dropped it into a collection bin, and waited and hoped. Terry had to make it to Contestant’s Row, which means his name had to be pulled randomly by a show’s producer. Of course, the entire plan hinged on a quick preliminary bit of luck. They didn’t simply intend to get on the show they wanted to win, and they understood how patterns could help them play more effectively. They watched every single episode and memorized the prices. Terry and Linda took their plan to the next level. Granted, guessing the exact price has been done before, so if that was all that they did, this wouldn’t be much of a story.

Price is right season 49