This chilling play, first published in "The Best Short Plays," focuses on the lengths greedy people will go to win valuable gifts. In a broadcasting studio, the master of ceremonies challenges a contestant to call an old girlfriend he knows is engaged and get a date with her. She finally agrees to see him and he wins his prizes in the presence of his fiancee, who's agreed to go along with the whole tasteless act.
The Next Contestant was first performed as one of a series of short plays produced by the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York City in 1978.