<P> James eventually hosted a taping day (four half - hour episodes) of the daytime show in December 1974 when Barker fell ill and was unable to participate in the episode tapings . The two versions were largely similar at the beginning, as both were called The New Price Is Right . Some games had rule differences because of the larger budget and less commercial time on the nighttime show; for example, Double Prices was played for two prizes instead of one . </P> <P> This version retained the 1972 half - hour format for its entire run and never adopted the daytime show's Double Showcase rule or the Showcase Showdown added to the daytime format when it expanded to an hour in 1975 . As of season two, the word "New" was dropped from the program's name . It was titled The Price Is Right (as the daytime show was by this time as well), often referred to on the air as "the nighttime Price Is Right ." In most of the U.S., stations carried the syndicated Price as one of several weekly programs aired in one of the time slots in the hour before prime time which were created by the 1971 FCC Prime Time Access Rule . </P> <P> Though the nighttime version originally had higher ratings, by 1975, the ratings started to drop . After the fifth nighttime season in 1977, when the contract with NBC's owned and operated stations ended, James' contract was not renewed . CBS' owned and operated stations picked the show up and the decision was made to hire Barker, whose Truth or Consequences was taped two years ahead and had stopped production in 1975 . The series taped its 300th and final episode on March 12, 1980 and was canceled after weekly syndicated game shows had fallen out of popularity in favor of daily offerings (such as Family Feud, which expanded to daily syndication the same year The Nighttime Price Is Right ended). With a run of eight seasons, it was one of the longest - running weekly syndicated game shows of the era and the longest - running regularly scheduled prime - time version of Price (the 1957--1964 run was seven seasons). </P> <P> Five years later, veteran host Tom Kennedy starred in a new daily syndicated version, which also used the traditional half - hour format and was syndicated by The Television Program Source . Like the previous syndicated series, this version had a slightly larger budget than its daytime counterpart . A perfect bid during the One - Bids won that contestant a $500 bonus (compared to $100 awarded on the daytime show during the same period); this bonus would permanently carry over to the daytime show in 1998 . This version used the same models as the daytime show as well as announcer Johnny Olson, who as noted above died during the season . Unlike the daytime series, which employed a series of guest announcers until a permanent replacement was decided upon, the syndicated series brought Gene Wood in to fill in for Olson . When the daytime series decided on Rod Roddy as the permanent replacement for Olson, he took over the syndicated series from Wood as well . </P>

Who produces and directs the price is right