October 15th Marks Five Years of Drew Carey’s “The Price is Right”
Today is a pretty interesting anniversary for game shows. On this day, October 15th, five years ago, Drew Carey took over as host of the popular CBS daytime game show The Price is Right. Bob Barker announced his retirement after 35 years in 2006 and the show underwent an extremely long…almost painfully long…search for a host. Candidates include Mark Walberg, Todd Newton, George Hamilton, Mark Steines, John O’Hurley, David Price, Mario Lopez, Marco Antonio Regil, and other names floated around like Rosie O’Donnell. Mike Richards, who now produces the show (as well as Let’s Make A Deal) also auditioned. Drew Carey was selected after his performance on CBS’s short-lived primetime game show Power of 10.
If you listen to the very vocal online fanboys you’d think reaction is mixed-to-negative, but again those are just the very vocal online people. The negativity is always louder than the positive, and the reception for Drew has been very positive. Drew helped keep the show afloat and finally brought it into the 21st century. It doesn’t pretend it’s stuck a decade or two in the past but it holds on to its roots and has remained the same show people have known and loved for 41 years . Plus the show has brought back its fun family-on-TV feel by letting announcer George Gray to participate on camera and giving the models a personality and allowing them to be more than just a face. The show is fresh, fun, and we’re glad to still see it on the air. Thanks for the good times the past five years, Drew. We hope to see him and everyone else for many more.
For nostalgia sake, take a look at how the show was five years ago. Here’s the intro to Drew’s first taped episode It’s interesting to see how much the show has progressed for the better over that time. The show looks ancient in this clip and that was only in 2007. After that check out Drew’s first aired introduction.
Drew does a fine job on Price; it’s a shame that the vocal online detractors make it seem like he’s the devil incarnate. Things change, and the show has to keep up with the times. Congrats on five years!
Yes, especially the “Threes” (TM Rob Seidelman), including those golden people who live down the road on the internet (again TM Seidelman). Drew isn’t Bob Barker (and in some ways that’s actually a good thing)…but as we can see from some of the names who did get tryouts, as well as some of the hosts of other Fremantle updates of classic shows, we could have had worse.
Drew really did kind of suck at first. I can’t tell you the number of people who don’t watch game shows regularly at all, but have always had a place for “The Price is Right” and are in love with Bob Barker. And…they HATE Drew!
With that said, in 5 years, he’s REALLY come around and “TPiR” is really enjoyable now and I highly look forward to its future. There are still come kinks that continually need to be worked out, but, overall, it’s great!
More than anything, his weight loss is the biggest difference! Wowza to that change!
Yeah, contrary to what Alex said, it’s been my experience that most “average” viewers seem to think the show is not very good without Bob. It is with the online fans that you get more of a mix of positive and negative responses (though of course the negative responses are often VERY negative). Personally I don’t think the show has been completely ruined, and there were some things about the show that were getting stale at the end of the Barker era, but I still think Drew is lacking in a lot of the qualities that I feel are necessary for a good host.
I agree with Mike. I don’t think the show has been completely ruined, but at the same time, I’m still not a big fan of Drew hosting it. Granted, after 5 years, he has improved quite a bit, but it still feels like he’s lacking some of the qualities that Bob exhibited that made the show exciting and funny to watch.
If you don’t believe me, watch the episode on YouTube about Bob explaining the Blank Check game to a contestant who after saying she knew how to play it, still didn’t know what she was doing. The commentary between her and Bob was hilarious to watch.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I haven’t seen that sort of natural comedy with Drew ever since he took over hosting.
Also, a side-note. I’m not a big fan of seeing male models on the show. I’m all about gender equality, and maybe it’s just because I’m a guy and I’m old-fashioned, but I prefer seeing women models.
Five years, huh? Time flies.
Drew’s jokes usually fall flat to me, like that “S-s-s-sixteen” joke from Money Game last week. It was apparently from some 80s song I’d never heard. His penchant for saying things that I would have screamed at my TV when I was a teenager (“WHAT?!” and “Aw, man” and the like) isn’t very professional.
However, Drew’s Price is Right is better than no Price is Right at all. His worst has passed and he has gotten better. I still look forward to The Price is Right every day and that’s all that matters.
The song was 19, by Paul Hardcastle. About the Vietnam war, referring to the average age of the soldiers who served our country there.
Ah, okay. Thanks! :)
I really don’t think it matters that his reactions are like those people would say at home. I think it shows you that he has some actual concern for the contestants. Besides, I’ve only ever heard him do that with a negative reaction. It’s not like he’s berating the contestants.
I understand he’s not berating the contestants.
I suppose I just need to get over it; I can recall Bob doing similar things when he knew things were wrong, like “Oooooooooohh..” and a pained “What’s the price of that?”. This is just on a different scale.
It took me a while, but I’ve grown to like Drew. In no way, shape or form do I deny that Bob was a great host… at first. I got tired of him during his last few years, though.
Let me make it more specific. Drew has never appeared to make the show all about him, he actually allows the contestants their fifteen minutes of fame, he doesn’t want complete control of the show, he has never had a lawsuit filed against him, and he knows how to keep his snake in its cage. Not only that, but if the show continues after Drew retires (which I hope isn’t for a great while,) I can’t see him constantly complaining about whoever potentially takes over after him. He’d actually wish that person well, unlike a certain someone. Yes, Bob enabled the show to last long enough for him to retire and for Drew to take over, but all the negative publicity that surrounded him, coupled with his overly-inflated ego among other things is why his legacy will never be fully celebrated.
I have a friend who went on Price Is Right back in June of 2010, I believe. When I asked her how it went, she said she really liked how Drew and the entire staff were with her and the rest of the contestants. When I asked her if she felt she would’ve had the same experience if Bob were still hosting, she told me she wouldn’t want to go anywhere near him.
5 years later and people are still calling out Bob’s name when giving prices…I noticed it happen a few weeks ago this season. shows you how much people still long for him. That being said, I actually really enjoy the show now. The only thing I do not enjoy is the pace. It doesn’t really make for much more than playing the games. Not much time to get to know the contestants and make any investment in their lives. I think that’s the best part about Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! They still, after 30 years+ in syndication and more and more time constraints due to advertising needs, still take time during each episode to get to know each contestant a bit. always my favorite part. Then, you really have a reason to root for a contestant.
Concerning the pace, and the comment by Dorvell above, I would never have wanted to be on the show with Bob as host, just because he was always so rushed, pushing people and telling them to hurry up.
Now I know that writing down your guess on a prize on Ten Chances should not take a half minute, but other times, Bob would still be rushing the contestants when they took a few extra seconds.
I’d be one of those who couldn’t figure what I wanted out immediately, so I would have probably been yelled at by Bob.
Concerning the pace, I would never have wanted to be on the show with Bob as host, just because he was always so rushed, pushing people and telling them to hurry up.
Now I know that writing down your guess on a prize on Ten Chances should not take a half minute, but other times, Bob would still be rushing the contestants when they took a few extra seconds.
I’d be one of those who couldn’t figure what I wanted out immediately, so I would have probably been yelled at by Bob.
Well, considering time constraints of today…
Wow, 5 years… hard to believe.
I didn’t like Drew at all at first. He seemed awkward, he made fun of the sponsors (big no-no in game show hosting), the “Drewcases” were too silly and immature most of the time, and a lot of times he seemed flat when it came to enthusiasm. However, many of these things have been ironed out and now I think he’s a good host. He seems sincere in his approach to contestants, the models, George, everyone. He keeps the game moving. He knows when to crack jokes and when to move things along. He never hogs the spotlight, making the contestants the stars. He’s done a 180 from day one and he’s making his mark on the show. Just from watching on TV, I sense a much more loose, laid back atmosphere from the Bob days. People seem to like working on the show and people seem to like Drew.
Bob got cranky in his older days and the show was growing stale. Who wants popcorn carts and grandfather clocks? Drew and crew have updated the prizes, the set, the games, just the overall feel. I miss the excitement Bob built up and the polish he had with his hosting, but Drew is more Pat Sajak than Bob Barker. He knows it’s a game, he knows life will go on win or lose, and he goes in with that attitude. Here’s to many more years!
Drew does pretty well with game shows. Some of the other candidates that were looked at back in 2007, I would have complaints about. We needed a long-term host for TPIR, and we got one.
Didn’t like drew work as host for the first year or two but he has gotten much better though.
He used to say “alakazam” before revealing prices. At least that’s no longer done.
I don’t like Drew Carey. At all. I have never liked any of his so-called “comedy.” That said, he’s actually perfectly tolerable here and was just fine on The Power of 10. He’s certainly no worse than Bob Barker (who I also just don’t like), at the very least. Of course, I think Walberg or Newton would have been better hosts, but complaining about that won’t do much now.
On the other hand, I’m stunned by the changes that the show has made in the past few years. I last watched it about 4-5 years ago, and it was still in a form that I absolutely despised. I tried it again starting with the current season, and I have to say that the show has somehow become good in that short period of time. It finally feels halfway modern nowadays, and my main issue with the show was how stuck in the past the set and everything was. I’ve only got a few issues with the show, like the theme song and music (can we just nick the Netherlands’ music, please?), the models having zippo personality (at least compared to the French models), and the show being 100% focused on the prizes and money, but I don’t expect any of those to get changed any time soon.
Rant of hopefully okay length over!
From what I can tell in these clips, Drew seemed to be in shock standing on the stage for the first time, wondering “What am I doing here?”. He seems to have grown into his role as host really well. We all don’t know for sure how much longer he’ll last, but he’s continuing to do pretty well.
Wow, he looks so amazing today, with the wight loss, compared to those clips.
But I don’t think the show looks “ancient”. I like how they’ve kept it up to date and freshened it up. Sort of like Wheel of Fortune. Little tweaks here and there, but the game is exactly the same.
And, I like the male models. I hope they make it permanent.
I really like Drew a lot. He has certainly grown up during these last six years. He has certainly grown up from a so-so host, to a certain, confident and cool MC. He has improved on the certain games he was struggling to achieve during his first couple of seasons. Unlike yet another CBS game show MC who shall remain nameless, he really wants the contestants to take home a lot of C&P. Also, Drew and George have also grown up to be a great team, even better than he was with Rich (Sorry), and overall the show has gotten better feel and sound from where it was when first took over.
Here’s to you Drew, it certainly hasn’t been easy, but it was worth it to see him became to great MC he is today, and hopefully, for many more years to come.