If you want a chance to be on The Price Is Right in the future, you might have a better chance. The game show is making another change to Season 55 that will affect how many people can be in the studio at one time.
Fans and models have already shared that there will only be one model on each episode from now on, instead of the usual two. Now, The Price Is Right is cutting its live studio audience in almost half.
Randy West, who is the announcer for the national game show tour and warm-up performer, shared the change on Facebook. “Honey, We Shrunk The Audience… again. Can you guess why? When The Price Is Right debuted on CBS in 1972, the seating capacity of Television City’s Studio 33 audience, according to the fire department occupancy sign from 1952, was 337,” he wrote.
“None of this relating to the temporary accommodation to the COVID pandemic, the audience size was slowly reduced over the years from 337 to 330, and then again, to closer to 300. This had little to do with physical logistics, and more about money. Money, you ask? Read on.”
“Then, for the 52nd season, The Price is Right moved from Television City to a new studio in a converted warehouse in Glendale to avoid facing a bill for the rental at TV City. CBS had been paying not only for the studio, but for thousands of square feet of storage for games, warehouses full of prizes, and up to 60 automobiles that were garaged on site. With CBS’ sale of the lot, the show was given a five-year moratorium on rent. The move to Glendale was necessary because that rental bill would have killed the show’s budget,” West went on.
However, the Glendale studio no longer seats 300 people. It is now closer to 174. To save money, the show was considering moving to Georgia, where production costs would be lower. But the game show decided to go with the second option, which was to remove seats from the studio.
“The bottom line: Starting this September, The Price Is Right audience will be about one-third the size it had been at Television City. It’s strictly a cost-cutting measure because, when you do the math of paying a dozen or two, or more, seat-fillers every tape day over the course of a season, you’d have likely asked yourself the same question: Why do we need that many people?” West ended.
He couldn’t share photos of the new seat layout, but he did share old photos of the audiences. However, a brief glimpse of the studio was seen in a clip for the upcoming Star Trek episode. Season 55 has not yet publicly set a premiere date, so it is not clear when fans will see this change.
“I can corroborate the post here and say at the taping I was at, they also capped the audience to 128 people,” a Reddit user said.
“I guess that means better odds, so I need to try again!” another asked.
“The good news is your chances of being picked go up substantially,” a third added.
Model Amber Lancaster shared more about being the only model to work an episode, where she worked 10-hour days. She said she was physically exhausted, but it worked better for her mentally.
What do you think of this change? Let us know in the comments.
The Price Is Right, Season 55, fall 2026, 11a/10c, CBS