As the last remaining daytime network game show, The Price Is Right isn't just a CBS staple, it's practically a public trust. So when host Bob Barker announced he was stepping down after 35 years on the job, everyone who still cares about the genre–and CBS' stewardship of TPIR in particular–had something to say about the network's choice of host:
Drew Carey? Seriously?
Don't get me wrong: I like Carey. I thought he was funny as a young stand-up comic, and I thought the first few seasons of The Drew Carey Show had a really unique sensibility for a '90s sitcom, at once slovenly and sweet, with unusually frank libertarian overtones. (After a few years though, the show just got too silly.) I also love Carey's outspoken support for public libraries, and I even liked him on the two episodes I watched of Power Of 10, where he turned the modern game show host model on its ear by minimizing the contestants' personalities by playing up his own, via near-constant chatter.
But The Price Is Right doesn't need a host to subvert its formula. If anything, the show's popularity is due to its fixed position. The reason college kids like The Price Is Right so much is that it's exactly the same as it was when they were kids, watching the show in their pajamas on snow days, while eating Froot Loops right out of the box. (Something else college kids still like: Froot Loops.) Even with Carey on board, the 36th season retains the classic TPIR look, right down to the ring of stage lights and retro graphics in the opening. The only real difference is that when Carey gets introduced, the crowd begins chanting, "Drew! Drew!"
As for Carey, in this first episode he didn't seem quite sure what to do. He tried a few awkward personal interjections. (When giving away a Jeep Wrangler, Carey meekly offered that he used to drive one himself, and it was pretty cool.) He twice tried to engage in typical "It's a new car!" set-ups, but both times he rushed his "Did you drive here?" line such that the contestant asked him to repeat the question. And he was a complete bust at contestant-wrangling, either clumsily giving them stage directions–"turn this way…face the camera"–or muttering softly to himself while they took forever to make up their minds. (Typical Carey patter duing a game: "We need…okay…which?…the seven?…oh…you need…okay.") More than once, a contestant won the big prize without even realizing it, because Carey hadn't properly prepared them for the big reveal.
So what does Carey offer? Well, he's likable, and he's known. That's about it. There are a fair number of young hosts-in-training who could've filled Barker's shoes more than capably, but CBS knows that when other game shows have changed hosts from legends to nobodies, the perception was that they'd gone low-rent. Hiring Carey shows that the network is still committed to this show.
And it's not like he was a total washout in his debut. If he can cut down on his nervous jabbering and let the game run itself, he'll be just fine. But at that point, fans of the show again might reasonably ask, "For this we need Drew Carey?"
I eagerly await the sex scandals to follow.
Grade: C+
Stray observations:
-There were a few nods to Carey's predecessor both at the beginning of the show, when they announced that it was coming to us from "Bob Barker Studio," and at the end, when Carey reminded us to spay or neuter our pets.
-I understand that it's traditional for contestants to ask the audience for help on guessing games and for the audience to shout out their suggestions, but when a contestant picks a "4" instead of a "6" on a game where the number choices are pretty much random, why does the audience boo?