‘The Price is Right’: Drew Carey Makes Timely Joke as Contestant Falls on the Way to Bidder’s Row

A man from Beaufort, South Carolina, finally got his dream of getting called down on The Price is Right after being in the audience of the game show 17 times. However, his long-awaited turn didn’t start on the best foot because he fell before he could even make it on stage.

City Councilman Neil Lipsitz got called to “come on down!” on the Monday, March 24, episode. As announcer George Gray called his name, the camera panned around the audience but couldn’t find him. Eventually, he showed up on screen as the camera panned back to the other contestants at the podium. Lipsitz waved his arms in the air and clutched his chest as he took his spot at the podium.

“Neil!” host Drew Carey said. “Where were you?”

Lipstiz threw his arms up and explained that he had fallen on the floor, even though his fall was edited out of the episode. “We didn’t really mean come on down down,” Carey said.

After everything calmed down, the bidding continued. Lipsitz and his opponents bid on a pair of drones with two controllers, a carrying case, batteries, and 14 propellers. He priced the items at $1,350. Since the actual retail price was $1,782, he got to come down, without falling, and meet Carey for a chance to win prizes.

He played One Wrong Price, in which contestants are shown three prizes with three prices on them. Two of the prizes have the right price, and one has the wrong price. The contestant has to choose which one is wrong to win all three prizes shown. The prizes that Lipsitz had to choose from were a coffee maker package at $761, workout equipment for $3,840, and DJ gear at $2,970. Lipsitz picked the DJ equipment, which was wrong, so he did not win the prizes. The fitness equipment was $1,733.

During the Showcase Showdown round, he spun the wheel and went over 100, at 120, so he didn’t make it to the Showcase, but he finally got to spin the wheel. He went home with a pair of drones, which he shared he will be giving to a friend.

Lipsitz attended the taping with his sister, Judy Thornberry, which was filmed in December, according to the The Island Packet. “I just leaped out of my seat, ‘That’s me! That’s me!’” he told the outlet. The contestant blamed his “bad knees, the three cinnamon rolls. and five cups of coffee he had before the show” for his fall. Plus, he was in shock from being called after more than 30 years of trying to be on the show.

 

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“I was jumping all over the place for so many reasons,” he told The Island Packet.

Lipsitz shared that he records the game show so he never misses an episode. “When I’m stressed, I watch a couple of episodes,” he said. “It was an experience of a lifetime!”

He was elected City Councilman of Beaufort in November 2020. He worked in his family’s department store – the Lipsitz Department Store in downtown Beaufort, which closed in 2009 after more than 100 years of operation- before pursuing a career in politics. Lipsitz also owned a shoe store on Bay Street and worked in real estate. He lives with his wife, Michelle, and adult son, Adam, according to the City of Beaufort’s website.

The Price Is Right, Weekdays, 11a/10c, CBS