At the turn of the 21st century, fans of The Price Is Right received some startling news via
an announcement that longtime show model Janice Pennington was no longer going to be appearing
on the program. Janice had been a staple on the program for nearly three decades, with her having
debuted on the series upon its 1972 premiere. Sadly, the story of Janice’s removal from the
series is merely the tip of the iceberg that reveals a damning history of wrongful
terminations that have apparently plagued The Price Is Right for a long time. Join
Facts Verse as we explore the REAL reason Janice Pennington left The Price Is Right.
Janice Pennington Was Fired from The Price Is Right
In the year 2000, fans of The Price Is Right were shocked to learn that longtime
model Janice Pennington was no longer going to be appearing on the classic
game show. The announcement came as just as much of a surprise to the model herself.
Janice had been on the show for 28 years and had filmed well over 6,000
episodes of the series. Audiences had come to associate Janice with the program just as
much as host Bob Barker himself, and many fans were outraged at the model’s sudden departure.
While Janice Pennington’s departure made the biggest waves, she wasn’t the only beloved
member of The Price Is Right’s team to be let go at the time. Alongside Janice, another one of the
show’s models, as well as several members of its creative staff, were let go. The other model was
Kathleen Bradley, though she hadn’t been a member of the show’s team for quite as long as Janice.
Because of this, her departure from the series didn’t make as many waves.
Though Janice Pennington wasn’t the only one being booted off the program,
her departure was the one that the audience had the hardest time dealing with. Angry letters came
pouring into The Price Is Right’s offices, though the powers that be were firm in their stance that
there was no longer room for Janice or any of the other fired employees on the successful game show.
Despite this, no clear reason was ever given for Janice or any of the others being let go.
Janice and Kathleen Knew the Real
Reason They Were Fired from The Price Is Right There may have been no reason given for Janice
Pennington and Kathleen Bradley being fired from The Price Is Right, but it wasn’t too hard for the
two models to figure out the reason on their own. In the years leading up to their firing,
both Janice and Kathleen had refused to defend host Bob Barker and the show
in a wrongful termination lawsuit that had come about after the firing of Holly Hallstrom.
Holly Hallstrom had been dismissed from The Price
Is Right in 1995. However, unlike with Janice and Kathleen, there was a clear reason given for the
termination of Holly. Still, that reason wasn’t determined by much of the public to be a very good
one. As it turns out, Holly was fired from The Price Is Right as a result of a minor amount of
weight that she had gained since taking up her tenure on the series. Of course, Holly wasn’t
too happy about being let go from the series for such a superficial reason and subsequently sued.
When Holly sued Bob Barker and The Price Is Right for what she felt was her wrongful termination,
the show’s staff members asked remaining models such as Janice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley to
testify against the former game-show model in court in an effort to prove that there was no
negativity or discrimination going on in the hiring and firing of the show’s beautiful ladies,
which have often been colloquially referred to as Barker’s Beauties.
Never Take the Stand Against a Fellow Model For whatever reason, both Janice and Kathleen
flat-out refused to testify in defense of Bob Barker and The Price Is Right. It may
have been that the two models agreed with the point that their former peer was trying to make
with her wrongful termination lawsuit. Janice and Kathleen may not have been able to find
it in themselves to defend Bob and the show, or they may have simply not wanted to get up
on the stand and start attacking Holly given the fact that she used to be one of them. Either way,
Janice and Kathleen refused to testify, and they likely lost their jobs because of it.
When Janice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley were booted off The Price Is Right, there was
no episode paying respects to the two longtime models. There wasn’t even so much as a farewell.
The duties of the two models were simply passed over to the remaining model Nikki Ziering with
little fanfare, and Nikki retained her duties for the next several years. It was likely an
intentional move on the part of The Price Is Right’s creative team not to mention the departure
of Janice or Kathleen on the series because they didn’t want to stir the pot. The reaction
to the models being fired had been bad enough without drawing attention to it on the show.
Not long after being fired, both Janice and Kathleen joined the ranks of former peer Holly
Hallstrom by suing The Price Is Right for wrongful termination. If you’re enjoying this video so far,
be sure to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if
you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
Janice and Kathleen Settled Out of Court Shortly into Janice Pennington and Kathleen
Bradley’s respective wrongful termination lawsuits against The Price Is Right,
the two former models ended up settling out of court for an undisclosed sum of money. Janice’s
settlement came complete with a hush clause that prevented her from disparaging Bob Barker,
while Kathleen’s settlement included no such clause. Because of this,
Kathleen has been the much more outspoken of the two when it comes to her negative
feelings about the situation in the wake of the settlement. Both models claimed that it
wasn’t Bob Barker who had fired them personally, but instead the network.
While Janice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley were willing to settle out of court,
this wasn’t the case with Holly Hallstrom. When Holly sued Bob Barker and The Price
Is Right for wrongful termination, it resulted in a ten-year legal battle in which the former
game-show model didn’t let up for a second. Holly had been fired from The Price Is Right in the
aforementioned year of 1995. As compared to Janice and Kathleen’s firings, a clear reason was given
for the firing of Holly, and she was also fired directly by Bob Barker himself. As established,
the reason for Holly being fired from the program was the fact that she had put on a few pounds.
Following her firing from The Price Is Right, Holly would recall how the show’s creative
team would often hide her behind large objects so that the audience couldn’t make out her figure.
When this was happening, Holly didn’t think all that much about it. However, in retrospect,
the star came to realize that the show’s staff was trying to hide her minuscule weight gain.
Holly was understandably offended by the notion that she needed to be let go from the series
just because she had put on some barely noticeable weight. However,
there was also the fact of the matter that Holly didn’t fully believe that her weight gain was
the real reason for her being let go. Instead,
Holly believed that the real reason she was let go from the beloved game show was because she,
like Janice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley after her, refused to testify on Bob Barker’s behalf.
Janice and Kathleen’s Story Mirrored Holly Hallstrom’s
Just as Janice and Kathleen would be asked to do against her many years later, Holly was asked
during what would end up being her final years on The Price Is Right to testify against one of
her former peers in order to defend her employer. While it was Holly herself who Janice and Kathleen
would later be asked to testify against, Holly was asked to testify against a model by the name
of Dian Parkinson. Dian exited The Price Is Right for undisclosed reasons in 1993 before
coming out of the woodwork shortly afterward with a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bob.
When it was revealed that Dian Parkinson was going to be suing Bob Barker for sexual harassment,
Bob asked Holly to do some press events and tell the world that Dian wasn’t telling the
truth about the sexual harassment. Not wanting to get involved, Holly refused. Following
her refusal, Holly thought she was in the clear until she was fired for weight gain. Of course,
it’s not hard to connect the dots and assume that there definitely could’ve been an ulterior motive
for Holly’s firing. If this is truly the case, then it seems that Dian’s sexual harassment
lawsuit had a snowball effect that ended up costing The Price Is Right a whole lot of money.
Holly Hallstrom did not take her removal from The Price Is Right lying down,
and subsequently brought about her aforementioned wrongful termination lawsuit. Bob actually tried
to sue Holly for slander, claiming that she was lying about him in the wake of her firing.
This lawsuit was thrown out, and Bob was forced to pay Holly’s legal fees for it. As far as the
wrongful termination lawsuit, it ended up taking a whopping 10 years for Holly to get justice in
the courts for her firing from the series. The whole debacle likely could’ve been over
much faster if Holly had taken an out-of-court settlement, but the ex-model truly wanted justice.
Holly Hallstrom Found Justice in the Courts Holly ended up using all of her money in her
battle against The Price Is Right, to the point where she was said to be living out
of her car towards the end of it. Holly’s perseverance ended up paying off, however,
as she would emerge from the legal battle as its victor in 2005, with many millions of dollars to
her name as a result. As one might imagine, the ex-model no longer has to sleep out of her car!
While the removal of longtime model Janice Pennington from The Price Is Right understandably
angered fans of the series, her wrongful termination was just one of several wrongful
terminations that the show, as well as host Bob Barker, have had to answer for over the years. Now
it’s time to hear from you: did you know that several ex-models from The Price Is Right have
sued the show for wrongful termination and that one ex-model also claimed to have
been sexually harassed by host Bob Barker? As always, like this video
to show your support, subscribe, and hit the notification bell if
you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their
way!