Vanesa from Vermont won $240,150 on The Price Is Right in The Lion’s Share, setting a new CBS daytime record for a single pricing game. The price is right win came on Friday’s special Mother’s Day episode and topped a mark that had stood for a decade.
Vanesa’s $240,150 run
Vanesa, described as a retired military veteran, played The Lion’s Share and kept going after reaching $127,500. She made that call after saying, “The last two numbers are my daughter’s birthday — I have to go.” Then she added, “For you, baby,” as the game continued.
By the end, she had climbed to $240,150 before taxes. That total surpassed the previous single-game record of $210,000, set a decade ago in a Cliffhangers game, by $30,150.
The Lion’s Share payoff
The Lion’s Share debuted this season and asks contestants to guess grocery-item prices to earn up to five balls. Each ball drops into a wind tunnel to reveal a hidden prize amount, and the contestant can walk away or keep risking the winnings after each reveal.
Friday’s episode delivered the second of four $100,000 balls during the run, followed by a final ball that revealed a luxury mother-daughter trip to Morocco valued at $12,650. Drew Carey kept the pace moving with, “Vanesa, we’re almost up to a quarter-million dollars,” and later, “More one ball to go.”
Carey’s final call
The last reveal pushed the prize to record territory, and Carey signed off the game with, “Happy retirement.” For a contestant who had already locked in $127,500, the decision to press on turned a Mother’s Day appearance into the biggest single pricing-game payout in the show’s 54-year daytime history.
That kind of number also sets a new benchmark for The Lion’s Share itself. The game arrived this season with a ceiling that looked large on paper; Vanesa found the path that made it matter on air.
