closest finish you've seen on a game show?

[danderson]

Two of them i saw live...The Jeopardy Million Dollar Masters Tournament where Brad Rutter won by 1 dollar, or on American Gladiators, Marc Ortega vs. Joseph Mauro in the Eliminator that ended the 1992 Grand Championship. Ortega overcame Mauro's four-second head start to win in a photo finish (0.02 seconds ahead) that became the show's defining moment.

[Kniwt]

The Cube, by its very nature, has an abundance of close finishes, in the milliseconds.

And likewise, Escape Perfecto (MX) frequently has photo-finishes where the government-provided SECGOB supervisor has to rule whether the contestant got out in time and did so in accordance with the rules (which, it seems, are many).

Just the first two that come to mind.

[parliboy]

Two of them i saw live...The Jeopardy Million Dollar Masters Tournament where Brad Rutter won by 1 dollar, or on American Gladiators, Marc Ortega vs. Joseph Mauro in the Eliminator that ended the 1992 Grand Championship. Ortega overcame Mauro's four-second head start to win in a photo finish (0.02 seconds ahead) that became the show's defining moment.

I don't think one dollar wins on Jeopardy are close in the sense that really qualifies, since they tend to be engineered by the rules of the last question.  The American Gladiators finish you mention though?  Definitely up there.

[Fedya]

It could just as well go in the Video Clips section, but this Countdown Grand Final has everything you could ask for, including a close finish:

[BrandonFG]

on $ale.

[Bryce L.]

on $ale.

Or to go as close as you can without an outright tie... .

[TLEberle]

Growing up with basic cable there were lots of games on Nickelodeon whose bonus rounds relied on a timer.

[Robair]

The only known tie in the history of "The Price Is Right" when somehow, both contestants were the same difference from their showcase. It was a nighttime show sometime during the first or second season.

[JMFabiano]

The only known tie in the history of "The Price Is Right" when somehow, both contestants were the same difference from their showcase. It was a nighttime show sometime during the first or second season.

What was the result?  Did they just let both contestants have their own showcase?

[Bryce L.]

The only known tie in the history of "The Price Is Right" when somehow, both contestants were the same difference from their showcase. It was a nighttime show sometime during the first or second season.

What was the result?  Did they just let both contestants have their own showcase?

Per Golden-Road, it happened on episode 008N (VTR 09-18-1972), and yes, the result was each player winning their own Showcase.

[doctorwho]

While we're on the subject of The Price Is Right,

[SuperMatch93]

Two-way tiebreakers on Sale weren't particularly rare, but there was one occasion where the speed round ended in a three-way tie. Even Jim remarked that he couldn't remember that ever happening before.

[CeleTheRef]

From Italy, the 2006 Passaparola tournament of champions final surely qualifies.

The final game was about two contestants answering to a series of 21 questions whose answers begin with a different letter (the Italian alphabet has only 21 letters).

The match ended 19-19, the tiebreaker was time taken...  they both took the same time. No biggie, this already happened a few times.

So they went to the sudden-death questions: one question for each contestant until one is correct and the other misses. Question after question, they were still tied.

After 20 of such questions, the host announced "...and I can't go any further!". The writers ran out of questions!

As the judges were lost, the host decided to call it a night and split the prize money evenly.