Here’s a little secret about being in the studio audience at a taping of The Price is Right: Even if you don’t get the famous call to “come on down” and play TV’s longest-running game show, there’s a good chance you’ll still win time with host Drew Carey, who’s commanded the skinny mic since 2007.
On the day TV Insider visited set to chat with Carey about his ascension to longest-serving game show host currently on air (he inherited the title after Pat Sajak’s sign-off from Wheel of Fortune), the comedian and actor happily made his way through the gleeful, 175-strong crowd during filming breaks. In the front row, Carey spotted a man in a ballcap identifying him as a Vietnam veteran. Carey, a one-time Marine reservist, thanked him for his service, asked a few questions about the man’s life, and then told a joke that he later acknowledged is well-worn. (“How many Vietnam vets does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” The punchline: “You wouldn’t know! You weren’t there, man!”) It still got huge laughs. Now that’s a guy who can keep a party like Price, which premiered in 1972, going.
Carey has always been a likable, unpretentious everyman, as seen on his sitcom The Drew Carey Show (1994-2004, ABC) and as host of the improv comedy series Whose Line is it Anyway? (1998-2007, ABC). He took over Price when the show’s original host, the late American icon Bob Barker, retired and has kept up the same encouraging, unflappable ease with contestants. On the day we visited, a player was confused about the rules of “To the Penny.” Shooting paused while Carey and a producer patiently made sure she understood before continuing.
After Carey finished the morning taping of a show that will air December 11 (he shoots three episodes a day, two in the afternoon, each with a new audience) we sat down with him on the set, which feels as familiar as your grandma’s living room, to talk about why the studio is such a happy place, how long he’ll stay on the job, and his love of the game. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
How does it feel to be the longest-serving game show host currently on air?
Drew Carey: I just show up and punch the clock and hope I have a job every day. I don’t think in terms of I’m the longest one. I do have a goal: I want to keep going until I die. This is my 18th season. I’ve got to get the 35 and 41 so I can catch Bob Barker and Pat Sajak.
So, you won’t ever retire?
Before, I was like, “Can I make it to five years? Can I make it to the end of my contract? Can I make it 10 years?” The longest I’d been on TV was The Drew Carey Show, nine years. Once I hit 10 years here, I was like, “Wow, that’s the longest I’ve ever had a job in my life. It’s such just a great part of my day, my year, my life. I can’t imagine giving it up.” I don’t like CBS to know that [Laughs], but it’s going to be a few years ’til my next contract negotiation. So maybe forget I said this. I can quit anytime I want!
Bonnie Osborne/CBS
You’ve kept Bob Barker’s iconic sign-off recommendation to spay and neuter your pets, but you’ve added your own too. It’s, “Take care of yourself, especially your mental health; it’s so important, and I love you!” Why?
It’s important to me. I went through a rough couple of years, and I needed to put my mental health first. It was such a help for me to do that and not succumb to sadness or grief. My therapist and my doctor helped me find tools to not go completely under. That’s all it is: tactics and tools you can learn to help your brain from not going down the drain. You can go into an addiction of feeling depressed and not knowing how to get out. You normalize it, or you normalize feeling bad about yourself. Life can be so much better with love, forgiveness, boundaries, speaking your mind, saying your truth, and living your truthful life.
Some people are afraid to do that. They don’t want to seem weak or overbearing or be called, “Oh, that guy’s being an a**hole. He’s stating his worth and won’t put up with something anymore. Why doesn’t he play along like everybody else?” Maybe he or she doesn’t want to. It’s not who they are anymore. People end up getting trapped and unhappy. There are all kinds of really well-researched ways to not have that happen to you. Professional therapists and psychologists don’t have everything figured out, but they have a lot figured out. Sometimes therapy helps. Sometimes reading a self-help book or talking to a friend. I feel better from being here. So I pass it along.
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The vibe here is very happy.
Everybody wants to see people win. When you see somebody doing something, like when you’re watching sports or a drama on TV, you’re yelling or thinking to yourself, “Don’t date that man in the romantic drama! Don’t go in the basement! Don’t give that guy the ball! Why don’t you pass to this guy?” Everybody plays along with everything they see and every story they hear. That’s human nature. They’re thinking, “What would I do? How would I be in their shoes?” People eventually started cheering for each other. It’s not my money — it’s CBS’s money, and we’re all trying to take it together.
You really have fun with the audience.
That’s a favorite part of the show. They’re normal people that live normal lives. This is average America right here. There are no CEOs, ultra-rich upper management. They don’t come to The Price Is Right. These are middle class, working class. Every religion. It’s a cross-section of America. Regular people are more interesting than celebrities. Honestly. They’ve all had their own problems to overcome and their own demons, to get their own special lives. I learn more from them than I do from anybody.
Sometimes contestants get a little over-the-top, or it seems maybe they had a little liquid courage. How do you handle that?
Oh, that happens here all the time. They’ll have a gummy or I’ll smell alcohol on their breath. Not unusual. There was a guy here that was tripping on mushrooms. He came with a bunch of friends. He was a sketch [comedy] guy. I found out later when I went to UCB [sketch improv theater, United Citizens Brigade] to hang out and they were like, “Did you see that guy who claimed to be a skateboarding rabbi?” I asked him what he did for a living. And he goes, “I’m a skateboarding rabbi.” He didn’t think he was going to get picked, and he totally tripped.
Well, speaking of…I understand you love the band Phish.
I didn’t know one Phish song, but they were playing at the Sphere. I’d seen U2 at the Sphere three times, and I thought, “U2 was the best thing I’d ever seen up there with Bruce Springsteen.” I said in an interview about Phish, “They made U2 look like a bar band.” I wasn’t trying to insult U2! I was trying to talk about how great Phish was because the four days I saw Phish, they never repeated one song. Each night was themed to different elements, and it was phenomenal. It’s 16K video. There was one video where you thought it looked like bubbles were floating over your head. You’re just like, “Who needs drugs? You can just show up straight and get your mind blown.”
Price can be mind-blowing too. This season, you were genuinely surprised on the June 7 episode when that person was a dollar off the correct price in the showcase.
I stopped, and I said, “You know what?” And I looked at the crowd and they all cheered. This is the closest we got without any audience help. This guy was just a dollar off. I was flabbergasted because that never happens.
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There are 79 games, and you tape 190 daytime shows a season — not to mention additional primetime specials. How do you keep all the game rules straight?
They used to give me a list of the games for the week. I quit looking at it. They don’t even give it to me anymore. When I’m on the show, I literally don’t know what we’re playing [next]. I know all of them like the back of my hand, so when I’m pointed to a place I can think like, “Oh, it’s going to be one of these games.” Or I can tell from the setup like, “Oh, we’re going to be playing ‘Lucky Seven.’”
You’ve created one game, “Rat Race.”
It’s like a Frankenstein of all the other Price is Right games. Like the randomness that happens on ‘Plinko’ — you never know how the race is going to turn out — there’s the way you get to pick a rat by progressively going a dollar, $10, a hundred dollars off. I just stole from every other thing and made a new thing.
Hey, Frankenstein is a pretty good monster.
His heart was in the right place. He was kind of abused and not treated well.
Has there been a prize you wished you could win?
Oh, tons of them. Cooking trip to Italy, tour the Vatican. I’ve been to Rome a couple of times, and the tour of the Vatican is amazing. It’s so beautiful. The Vatican Museum has some of the best art in the whole wide world. Trips to different islands. I like to travel.
Do you choose your wardrobe?
We got new wardrobe people and they said, “We want to know your vibe.” I said, “I want to look like an aging rock star.” We went through pictures. I like the brand John Varvatos. I like that idea of still hip but dressed appropriately for my age.
You’ve done so many special shows, even officiating a mass wedding on a 2015 episode. What themed show would you still like to do?
I just like doing regular shows mostly. But what I want to do is go to Seoul, South Korea, and do a USO show. Maybe do a whole week and have K-pop bands on as special guests to help play the prizes. Korea is one of our strongest allies, and I think it would help put a dent in some of the Asian hate that’s out there right now. I talked to people at USO, and they’re all for it. I pitched it to CBS and Fremantle [the company that produces Price] over and over and over again.
Were you a game show family growing up, and did you ever imagine you’d do this?
I watched them. I kind of looked down on it, honestly. Being a game show host, I was like, “Yeah, game show host…” But it’s so much fun, and it’s great.
The first anniversary of Bob Barker’s passing is coming up on August 26. What are you still thinking about when it comes to Bob, when you’re hosting this show?
Ever since the beginning, I wanted to be a good steward. I learned that from when I was a church kid. You got to be a good steward of the Earth and good steward of your family and a good steward of your money. And I want to be a good steward of the show, so I don’t screw it up and wreck it from the very beginning. I was like, “Don’t mess it up.” I just wanted to make sure it was always on.
Season 52 continues this week with five final new episodes starting June 24. A red, white, and blue-themed season finale on July 4 will offer prizes ranging from surfboards to a Maui trip, and will mark the 50th anniversary of the popular “Card Game.”
Sonja Flemming/CBS
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