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.
