The Price is Right: Drew Carey Takes the Reins

A momentous event occurred today, October 15^th, Bob Barker's reign as host of Price is Right officially ended as Drew Carey's reign began. How did Drew do? Many long time fans have been waiting and watching.

I've lost my taste for Bob Barker over the years. Sexual harassment lawsuits certainly haven't helped, but after the first round lawsuit, I noticed that the women tended to keep their distance from Mr. Barker just a little more than they had previously. This was perhaps on order of the producers, but for me it led to questions.

Meanwhile, Drew Carey is one of those men that some people love and others can't stand. I enjoyed him in Who's Line Is It Anyway?, but it took me longer to get into The Drew Carey Show. From the start of the show, I've noticed that he talks fast, thus giving a clue that Drew is pretty nervous himself. I suppose this is normal as he is following in pretty big footsteps. If you plan to watch this later, spoilers occur so stop reading.

The show opens with the first prize up for bid-SCUBA gear. Bids range greatly starting at around $650 to $1,300 with the actual retail price being $2,114. Bernard has the winning bid and soon learns he'll be playing for a brand new Jeep Wrangler providing he can beat "The Money Game." Rather than standing near Drew, Bernard immediately runs over to the Jeep. "The Money Game" involves choosing the first two and last two numbers in the price of the car. While he gains the first two numbers pretty quickly, he turns to his wife for help. After two wrong options, he stops listening to his wife and selects another number by himself. Bernard wins the Jeep and immediately climbs into it, again bypassing Drew.

The second prize up for a bid is a fridge/freezer combo. This time bids go up to $2,650. Peggy wins with her lower bid and proceeds to yodel for the audience at Drew's request. The prize is announced-a trip to Bali. The game Peggy plays is "Cliff Hanger" aka "Yodel Man." Those who know this game realize that Peggy now has to price each of three items without the Cliff Hanger going over the edge of the cliff. Peggy is off by $5 on her first pricing job. The next item is up and she is exactly on the money. Things look good for Peggy. The final item, the telephone, is harder, so she goes with $40 and is again exactly right. Peggy wins her fridge.

The third contestant is called and the item up for bid is announced. The exercise bike doesn't impress everyone judging by their faces, but bidding presumes. Bids range from $700 to $895. With a value of more than $1,000, Aura wins and makes it onto the stage where she can win up to $16,000 playing "In The Bag." Aura must place items she feels are worth the amount listed on each bag. She starts by placing potato chips in the 78¢ bag and the audience isn't too happy. After some shuffling, she seems to have things placed in a manner that pleases the audience and Drew starts revealing. Aura's won $1,000 to start, but the next bag doesn't look good. She manages to win $2,000 and has the option to continue by risking it all for $4,000 and she again wins. The next bag is worth $8,000 if she is willing to risk her $4,000 and she wins. Now with $8,000 in hand, she has two items left to win the $16,000. The audience cheers her on, and she decides to go for it. She wins the money and promptly falls to the ground.

Now that the first round is over and the wheel is about to be spun to determine who makes it to the final round, there is time to catch up. Everything seems so fast paced. Drew is rushing through everything repeatedly saying there is a lot of show to get through, especially in the case of Aura who was delaying her choices. Drew's nervousness shows through and it starts to be a little distracting at first. With time he may settle down, but for right now things feel frenzied. After all, this could land him the career of a lifetime if he's successful. There's never been another host leading Price Is Right.

Peggy starts things off and immediately spins a dollar, so she's off to a great start. Aura spins 70¢ to start and goes over on her second spin. Bernard doesn't manage to spin it all the way around and has to respin. He manages 25¢ on his first spin and 70¢ on his second. Peggy gets her bonus spin to land more money. She takes her spin and blows it, but she is in the showcase showdown.

After commercials, Drew returns and the prize, a dinette set, is revealed. Thomas is the winning bidder and learns he can win some his and her ski gear, an espresso/cappuccino maker, and an iron clock. Not horribly impressive prizes compared to the others. Thomas has a simple game, "Easy As 1, 2, 3." He has to put the numbered cubes at the highest, middle, and lowest priced prize. He decides that the espresso maker is the least expensive and that the ski equipment is most expensive. Things start off looking good and continue with a fourth winner in this first episode.

The next prize, a barbecue grill from Vermont Castings, gains bids from $1,000 to $1,850, the new contestant Amor wins. Amor's potential new car, a Ford Focus, is revealed. She has to play "One Away"-a game in which she must flip a number to either the preceding or next number in order to correctly price the car. She spends little time coming up with her answer, but the audience boos her as she selects "2" as the final number in the price instead of "0". After a cheesy "Oh Mighty Sound Effects Person" segment in which she learns how many numbers she has right, she learns she only has two correct and must fix three. The price is now revealed and she's won the car.

The final prize left to go in the second half of the show is a large hammock and stand. Contestants bid from $1 to $1,200 and hope for the best. The winning price of $811 is revealed and Gregory goes up on stage. His potential prize is announced-a desktop computer and a new bar stand. Gregory learns he'll be playing "Barker's Bargain Barn." Gregory must decide which of the prices given offers the biggest bargain off the normal retail price. Gregory picks the bar and wins. Drew's impressed that his first show is perfect with six winners. I find myself thinking it's probably rigged to improve ratings.

The final showdown occurs with the spinning of the wheel. Drew announces there have only been 77 perfect shows in history. Thomas starts things off and spins 70¢. Gregory is next and gets 95¢. Finally, Amor spins 35¢ in her first try and 65¢ in her second spin winning a $1,000 bonus. Amor does her bonus spin and gets nothing extra. The showcase returns after the ads.

Amor's showcase is shown first. Amor watches as her potential winnings are revealed: a Magnussen bedroom set, Strobel mattress set, towel collection, and a Wave Runner jet ski. Amor opts to pass it to Peggy. Peggy bids $15,000, but she honestly doesn't look thrilled with the offerings. The big showcase is next and reveals a nice prize package for Amor. The list of prizes includes: a 56" HDTV, a Beachcomber hot tub, and a tent trailer. Amor seems pretty happy and bids $25,000.

One more set of ads must be endured before seeing the end of the show. Peggy's showcase goes first and the retail price of $20,543 is revealed, Peggy's bid is $5,443 off.. Amor is next. Her prize package is valued at $27,225 and her bid is only a couple thousand off so she wins.

Overall, I can't say that I was really drawn to the show. It's not bad; it's typical Price Is Right. Did Drew do anything to draw me in? Not really. In the end, I really don't miss the spaying and neutering reminder that Barker always did, but I saw nothing compelling enough to make me want to return.