This Is What It's Like To Walk Away A Winner From These 7 Game Shows
Being on a game show is one of those thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that so many people want to enjoy.
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How many other opportunities are there to have fun, show off some skills, and win cash and prizes in the process?
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As many game show winners will tell you, however, the devil is in the details when it comes to game shows. What it looks like you win isn't always what you walk away with.
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Here's what winning looks like on these different game shows.
1.Jeopardy! is one of the harder game shows to get a chance to compete on, so winning doesn't come easy.
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First-place winners are known to walk away with a lot of money, but keep in mind, those winnings are taxed as income, which costs a pretty penny.
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Despite what totals they finish the game with, second place winners always walk away with $2,000, and third place winners always walk away with $1,000. Fans of the show have said it seems like too little for all the work contestants put in.
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2.Wheel of Fortune offers the allure of a lot of other prizes besides cash, like trips and cars.
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Those prizes, especially the trips, are often presented at an overinflated value. Contestants are presented with two options when it comes to trips they win.
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Guests who don't want to pay taxes on the trip at the value presented can either forfeit their trips or find trips at a lower value to swap them out for, Marketwatch reports.
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3.The Price is Right is one of the most iconic game shows and one of the longest-running. It's also got a bunch of cool prizes, like trips and cars.
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If you win big on The Price Is Right, you're not driving that brand new car off the lot. In fact, you can't even tell anyone you won until after the show airs, and then they begin the process of getting you your winnings, according to one Quora user whose wife had won a car on the show.
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After they send you a tax bill and you pay it, they arrange for your car to be delivered to you.
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4.Let's Make a Deal encourages contestants to wear costumes and be their wildest selves as they pursue prizes. Like The Price Is Right, you're required to keep everything under wraps until the show airs (and sign legal paperwork to ensure it).
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Again, you get the tax bill and the option to claim your prizes and pay those taxes or waive them. If you win a trip, you agree to take it within a year of signing the paperwork.
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As for a car, you have a limited number of dealerships you can work with to claim your prize car. They're given the money directly to ensure you use it on the vehicle.
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5.Family Feud gives contestants the chance to win cash or a car, but it's a little more complicated when you're dealing with a team.
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If you go for a cash payout, then it's pretty easy. According to a former contestant's Reddit AMA, each member of the family gets a check for the total prize, split five ways, 90 days after the show airs.
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6.Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? winners don't even get the promised payout. Regardless of whether you get all the way to the million, you still have to pay taxes on the prize money.
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7.You can't win To Tell the Truth, but you can appear as one of the contestants quizzed by a panel of celebrity guests.
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A recent casting call indicates it pays $1,000 for the day, which sounds better to some than playing for a chance to win on a more competitive show.
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To put it in perspective, only 23 people have made over $1,017,490 on a game show, and many of those people won that total as a result of multiple game show appearances.
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So winning game shows isn't a huge moneymaker, but it does make for one hell of a story if nothing else.
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