‘The Price Is Right’: Emotional Contestant Cries After Winning Car on His Birthday

A The Price Is Right contestant got a huge gift for their birthday — a car. The birthday guy cried after winning the prize.

Michael Hooper, who was celebrating his birthday and admitted that he got up too early, won the sixth item up for bid on May 11. He wore “Happy Birthday” glasses and a pin over his The Price Is Right Showcase wheel-themed shirt.

Hooper bid $1,151, just $1 over the next highest bid on Martha Stewart designer jewelry, which included 14kt white gold earrings with pear, and round and oval shape lab-grown diamonds. The actual retail price was $3,999.

He then came to the stage to play 10 Chances. It is a game played for a car and two prizes. The contestant has 10 chances to win all three prizes. They begin with the least expensive and are given three numbers, using two. Once they solve that, they move on to the next, with the number of digits increasing each time.

Hooper was trying to win a tabletop game board, a collection of massagers, and a blue 2025 Hyundai Elantra SE. The video of his win was posted to Instagram on May 27.

For the tabletop game, Hopper had to choose from zero, five, or seven. He chose $70 and was right, winning the first prize.

The massager had him choose from five, nine, zero, and six. Hooper chose $560 at first and was wrong, so he had eight more chances to try to guess the price. He picked $650 and was right. This gave him seven chances to try to guess the price of the car.

The numbers for the car were eight, two, zero, three, and six, with all of them being used. “He’s in such great shape right now,” host Drew Carey said.

Hopper chose $26,830 for his first guess, but was wrong. He turned to his wife in the audience for a second guess. He wrote $23,680. The game show contestant was right, meaning he won all three prizes.

Hopper threw his hands up in the air as the crowd cheered for him. He began to get emotional while standing on the stage. Tears fell out of the contestant’s eyes as he sat in his new car.

However, his birthday luck ran out after that. Hopper spun a 1.35 on the wheel, not advancing to the Showcase.

“A new car for a birthday gift is the best gift!” an Instagram user said.

“Amazing win!” wrote another.

“Best birthday ever!” a third added.

“This was great,” a fan said.

The Price Is Right, weekdays, 11a/10c, CBS, stream next day on Paramount+