'The Price Is Right' Returns To Production With Redesigned Set, No Audience

Long-running game show The Price Is Right is heading back into production with a redesigned, COVID-friendly set and all of its usual rounds, but, for the first time in its nearly 50-year run, it will be without its rambunctious audience. Evelyn Warfel, exec producer, said she and her team spent the last few months working out what a COVID-friendly production, following all of the local, state and guild guidelines would look like for The Price Is Right.

“We quickly realized we were not going to be able to have 300 people on the show sitting close together,” she said. “If we want to come back, we have to do it safely.”
“We’re still going to have the same great games. We figured out how to bring all 77 games back while maintaining social distancing. So, they’ll see all their favorite games. It was also important to me to keep the ‘Come on Down”,” she added.

The set has also been rebuilt. Decking has been put on top of the area that the audience used to sit and each contestant on Bidder’s Row are now six feet apart. “We pulled out all the audience chairs and we put in decking and we’ve now made it all one level. So, it’s level. I felt like it was odd for Drew to be talking down to only four people,” she said.

“We walked through our games with the doctors to discuss where we’ll have Drew stand and how the contestants will stand,” she added. “We’ve made some changes to some games… but they will be all spinning the wheel. They just have to sanitize their hands first, and then after that, the first wheel spin, the wheel will be sanitized for the next wheel spin.”

https://deadline.com/2020/10/the-price-is-right-returns-to-production-redesigned-set-no-audience-77-games-1234591178/