THERE ARE MANY GAME SHOWS THAT INVADE our television channels at any given time of the day. Some, like “Deal or No Deal,” rely on chance and gut instincts. Others, like “Wipeout,” intend to make their contestants look like complete fools for ratings. One stands out as an excellent tool for all college students to take notes from: “The Price is Right.”

Sure, we learn at the end of every show that we need to run out to spay and neuter stray animals, but that is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about smart shopping. Among the high priced items, common grocery products lurk in the games.

Imagine you are in great need of canned pineapples. Thanks to “The Price is Right,” you are aware that each can costs $1.79. It seems almost every episode has Chips Ahoy featured and you get a craving. I sure hope you were paying attention, because that bag was $3.42.

If you aren’t in the market for food, the show offers a wide variety of other prizes. In a single episode you could win one of three cars, a Macbook plus four iPods, a luggage set, scuba gear, electric banjo, gas grill, hot tub or a trip to Tahiti. Most of the games require you to figure out the price of the items either exactly or close enough without going over. The point is, you have to know your stuff.

Besides being wise with money, there are other lessons to be learned; take shirt decorating, for instance. Nearly all people who get to be contestants have made their own shirts by writing information about themselves, like if it is their birthday or they love Drew Carey or by drawing cute pictures, like of birthday cakes or of Drew Carey.

As the new host, Drew Carey does not pretend to be the famous Bob Barker. While Barker was kind but generally did not joke around, Carey often lightly makes fun of the contestants and laughs at his own jokes. He can be heard saying, “Remember, this is an hour long show,” when someone is taking too long or “Look who is making friends” when someone bids on a prize only one dollar more than the person before them and therefore shutting them out. Carey teaches us, then, to have a sense of humor about things. After all, it is only a game show.

Judging by the commercials that play during the show, college students are unfortunately not their target market.

In any given commercial break there is at least one diabetes-specific announcement, whether it be for medication, diabetes testing machines or that one commercial with the angry-looking old guy for Liberty Mutual who pronounces it “dye-a-bee-dus.”

Others are for AARP, heartburn, allergies, asthma and anti-wrinkle cream. There is the sporadic commercial driven to those stay-at-home-parents, but what the companies are looking for is a certain elder demographic.

Regardless of its life lessons, “The Price is Right” must be doing something, er, right. Ever since 1976 it has been nominated 38 times and won on 19 occasions at the Daytime Emmys. Sometimes it was for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup or Outstanding Game Show Host, often even both in the same award broadcast.

“The Price is Right” is for the average person because it needs no particular skill. You don’t need the knowledge of useless facts like for “Jeopardy” or “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” unless your friends are into that certain thing.

You don’t need to be smarter than a 5th grader, care about family feuds, or about wheels of fortune.
You just need to know that a bottle of Dove body wash is $5.49 and that you should get your pets spayed and neutered to control the pet population.