Retired Veteran Stuns The Price Is Right By Winning The Biggest Single-Game Prize In The Show’s 54-Year History

A retired veteran just made history on The Price Is Right during a special Mother’s Day episode.

During the Friday, May 8 episode of the game show, a woman named Vanesa from Virginia won an impressive $240,000 in cash and prizes — marking the largest prize won in a single pricing game in the show’s 54-year history on CBS, per the network.

Vanesa’s winnings came during this season’s new game of “The Lion’s Share,” which is part of a partnership with BetMGM. In the game, contestants guess the prices of grocery items to earn up to five balls. The balls then reveal a hidden prize amount, and contestants must decide whether to walk away with their current winnings or risk them to keep going.

While Vanesa was playing the game, she made the risky decision to risk it all and keep going.

The veteran ultimately won $227,500 in cash and a trip for two to Morocco ($12,650 value), earning her the record. With a total of $240,150, she beat out the previous single-game win record of $210,000, which was set during a game of Cliffhangers in 2016, according to CBS.

During the game, Vanesa said that the opportunity was “huge for me” and picked her numbers wisely. She kicked things off by winning $2,500, and her subsequent picks left her with $25,000, $100,000, another $100,000 and then her “mother-daughter trip” to Morocco.

Throughout the win reveals, she fell to the floor, cried and looked to her daughter for guidance in the crowd. “Vanesa, nice job,” host Drew Carey told her. “Almost a quarter mil. Nice job… That’s amazing. Happy retirement.”

After a commercial break, Carey, 67, pulled Vanesa aside and revealed she had broken a record to her and the audience.

“Just so you know, Vanesa, she won $240,150 in cash and prizes, which makes her the biggest pricing game winner in Price is Right daytime history,” he said. “Congratulations.”

The Price Is Right, which was previously hosted by Bob Barker, arrived on CBS in its current format in 1972. Carey has hosted since 2007. Back in 2024, the longstanding game show host told PEOPLE that he had no plans to retire from the series anytime soon.

“Thoughts of dying on-stage with a microphone in my hand have gone through my mind,” he said. “I never want to leave. I’m having such a good time there. Everybody treats me great and the cast is great and the production office is great.”

“I really feel supported and loved there and wanted,” Carey added. “When you’re 65 and in the entertainment business, you don’t really get that that often. I’m in a pretty rare situation so I wanna keep that going as long as I can.”

The Price Is Right airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. PT on CBS and streams on Paramount+.