New York – Comic Drew Carey was tapped Monday to replace silver-haired legend Bob Barker on the CBS daytime game show “The Price Is Right.”
“I realize what a big responsibility this is,” Carey said later during a taping of CBS’s “Late Show” with David Letterman. “It’s only a game show, but it’s the longest-running game show in American television, and I plan to keep it that way.”
Barker, 83, retired after 35 years in the job last month following taping of his 6,586th episode.
Carey, 49, spent a decade on his own ABC sitcom and also was host of the improvisational game show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” He will also be host of a new CBS prime-time game show, “The Power of 10,” that will air first next month.
Carey said a friend who knows the game show business told him, “as long as Bob Barker is cool with it, the fans will be cool with it.”
“I’m cool with it,” Barker said after hearing Carey’s remarks. “I understand he ad-libs very well and that he has a very nice, friendly way of working, and I think both of those would be helpful to him on ‘The Price Is Right.”‘
