Bob Barker by Gregg DeGuire/ WireImage.com
Even in retirement, Bob Barker is still peeling off Benjamins. The former Price Is Right host is donating $1 million to his alma mater, Drury University, for the purpose of establishing an animal-ethics program.... The 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue will be unveiled on Monday's Late Show with David Letterman. Come Tuesday, the cover model TBA will drop by the talker.... Season 2 of Showtime's The Tudors premieres March 30 at 9 pm/ET. (Watch a preview video here.)
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Drew Carey host of The Price Is Right by Monty Brinton/CBS
Giggling at the antics of the slap-happy contestants who “come on down” at what he calls “the happiest place on Earth,” Drew Carey looks like he’s having a blast, and looks right at home, on the spiffed-up set of The Price Is Right as he takes over as host today. There’s no fuss and no ceremony, and outside of the introduction telling us we’re at the Bob Barker Studio in Television City, and that one of the games is still called “Barker’s Bargain Bar,” and that Carey chooses to sign off with the traditional plea to have your pets spayed, there’s no actual homage to the former host as the new Price era begins.And yet, probably the greatest tribute to Bob Barker is that the show goes on, and goes on effortlessly with its funny-looking new ringleader, who appears to be genuinely tickled at the breathless excitement of the frantic folks who come to play the game. When one of the contestants does a cartwheel after taking the stage, C...
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Drew Carey, The Price Is Right
Drew Carey has the cold sweats, but not because he's worried about replacing Bob Barker as the new host of The Price Is Right. The guy is sick — bad sick — and he's in his dressing room at CBS in Hollywood downing Theraflu and popping vitamins like mad. Carey really should go home, but there's no rest for the overemployed. Today he still needs to shoot two more episodes of Price, then grab a plane to New York City to tape his other CBS game show, the prime-time Power of 10. It doesn't help that he's also nursing a bum wrist, which he crushed in a much-reported mishap with a turntable door during an early Price rehearsal. When he makes his on-air debut Oct. 15 (check loc
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Bob Barker by Cliff Lipson/CBS
Deborah Curling, who screened contestants for The Price Is Right for some 20 years, has sued Bob Barker and the show's producers, alleging they retaliated against her and forced her to vacate her post after she testified against Barker in a wrongful-termination suit filed by a former production assistant. An African-American, Curling also describes a hostile work environment where black employees and TPIR contestants were discriminated against. "Barker created an atmosphere of terror [where] any employee who complained... was fired," says papers cited by the AP.Curling's suit seeks an unspecified amount of damages/brand-new cars; a CBS rep declined to comment on the action.
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The Price is Right by Tony Esparaza/CBS
The Drew Carey-hosted Price Is Right will not only retain Bob Barker's signature sign-off encouraging pet owners to keep Fido from becoming Muffy's babydaddy, it also will stick to Barker's directive to not give away fur coats as fabulous prizes, says the New York Daily News. As producer Roger Dobkowitz wrote to PETA, "The Price Is Right is very proud that we were one of the first shows to realize, through Mr. Barker, that glamorizing fur coats as prizes must stop."Now can we do something about the useless home jukeboxes?
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Drew Carey by John P. Filo/CBS
In what qualifies as beyond a last-minute delivery, CBS dropped a screener of tonight’s premiere of the new Power of 10 game show on my desk this morning. (It sneak-peeks tonight at 8 pm/ET, then moves into its regular time period a night later on Wednesday, also at 8.) Now that I’ve seen it, I want to get the word out to any fellow game-show fans out there: Don’t miss it! And in particular, don’t miss this first hour.I like the game well enough — it’s all about playing percentages, trying to guess how many people responded a certain way to provocative questions in a nationwide poll — but what I really like is Drew Carey, who’s instantly proving his chops as the right choice to assume the Bob Barker role on The Price Is Right this fall. Carey puts both the contestant (in this case, an instantly likable 19-year-old pre-med student named Jamie) and the viewer at ease with his nimble wit. "You think you know it all at 19. You know nothing," he ge...
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Question: Since Rosie O'Donnell left The View, rumors have run rampant about where she might turn up next. Will she be the next Bob Barker? A contestant on a celebrity version of The Apprentice? And now comes word that Friday Night Lights execs are considering her for a guest stint as a ticked-off (can she play anything else?) soccer coach. I love FNL more than any show I've watched in a long time, but in light of Rosie's hostile outbursts, just seeing her face or hearing her voice stirs unpleasant emotions. No matter how well-written or -acted, I probably won't be able to see a small-town soccer coach — instead I'll just see Rosie, angry as usual. (I'm with Mark, by the way. I won't be watching the otherwise-intriguing Bionic Woman now that Isaiah Washington has joined the cast.) Looks like Ben Silverman's signature tactic for promoting a new or struggling show is to go the tabloid route and stunt-cast someone who's been grabbing headlines for something other than his or her acting ...
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Drew Carey by John Sciulli/WireImage.com
The ink is barely dry on the announcement that he will front CBS' Power of 10, but already there is talk that Drew Carey is the latest contender for the Price Is Right hosting gig. Both the Eye and TPIR producer FremantleMedia North America (aka ReallyNeeds New Name) met with the comic, sources tell Variety. Should Drew's name get drawn and Power of 10 succeed, he would likely tackle double duty.Bob Barker, meanwhile, clarifies for the AP that his après-Daytime Emmys comments should not be seen as a ringing endorsement of Rosie O'Donnell as a TPIR host wannabe. "I have not been asked for my opinion, nor have I expressed one," Barker maintains. "I think there are several people who could do the show, and Rosie is certainly one of them." But for him to cast his lot one way or the other, he says, would be "terribly presumptuous."
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Bob Barker by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com
Friday night's prime-time encore of Bob Barker's final turn as The Price Is Right host handily won the 8 o'clock hour, drawing 8.42 million total viewers. In turn, CBS' broadcast of the Daytime (Entertainment) Emmy Awards came out on top from 9 to 11 pm, delivering 8.33 million viewers — a 37 percent surge over last year's hour-longer telecast, and the awards' best numbers since 2004. Plus, we got to see utterly random folks pontificate YouTube-style about the acting chops of Tom Pelphrey and Michelle Stafford. Compelling stuff, that is.
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Bob Barker by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com
What becomes a living legend most? Modesty, grace and good humor. Such were the virtues on display throughout Bob Barker’s official last day (and night)on Friday as a revered, iconic game-show host.It started with his last-ever day hosting CBS’ The Price Is Right after 35 years, capping a 50-year career in broadcasting. (I remember growing up watching him on the slapstick game show Truth or Consequences before he landed the Price gig.) Despite the confetti, the standing ovations, and the prime-time replay just before the Daytime Emmys telecast (where he also cleaned up), it was mostly just another hour of Price Is Right merriment, albeit with the audience frenzy a bit more amped up given the nature of the day — and the fact that many audience members had camped out for days to be there (including the worshipful Patrick, who “came on down” as the show began but didn’t make it up on stage until the very last game).Bob Barker, ever the pro, wasted no time...
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