Drew Carey ‘living in the past’ with Price is Right’s ‘lack of innovation’ as fans beg for show changes

THE PRICE is Right is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and despite high viewership and decent ratings, viewers are reportedly getting tired of the show’s tried-and-true format.

Fans of the program are begging for the long-running game show and its host, Drew Carey, to step it up a notch, as an insider exclusively questioned to The U.S. Sun, “Where’s the innovation?”

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Drew Carey hosting an episode of The Price is RightCredit: Getty

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Drew Carey hosts a special episode of The Price is Right, titled Jackpot January – Super Bowl SpecialCredit: Getty

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The Price is Right fans, viewers, and contestants find some of the games too ‘tough’ and ‘creepy’Credit: CBS

THE PRICE IS BORING

A high-level broadcast TV insider faults Drew Carey’s “shockingly traditional” approach to hosting as the reason The Price is Right can often come across like “throwback TV.”

Bill Todman and Mark Goodson famously revived their 1960s game show in September 1972, and the popular game show has aired more than 9,000 episodes since its debut.

And, despite some changes to the show’s format over the years, The Price is Right continues to rely “on mini-games and format quirks that have hardly changed in a half-century,” a source told The U.S. Sun.

Longtime viewers and new fans alike have shared their thoughts on the game show on social media, claiming some games, like Lucky Seven and 3 Strikes, are “too tough,” “unlucky,” or otherwise “unfair.”

Some fans even label certain mini-games, like Rat Race, as “creepy,” and have begged producers to cut the game from the program.

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Model Rachel Reynolds and host Drew Carey appear on The Price is RightCredit: Getty

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The show has tried to make some small changes, like hosting a primetime evening version of the show on occasionCredit: Getty
“I do think Drew is living in the past a bit by holding onto this gig for so many years, but he loves the format and has since he was a kid,” the source claimed to The U.S. Sun.

Drew Carey has stated that while he watched the game show growing up, he wasn’t always a fan.

“I watched [game shows],” he told Today in June 2024.

“I kind of looked down on it, honestly. Being a game show host, I was like, ‘Yeah, game show host …’ But it’s so much fun, and it’s great,” he said, of the gig he’s held onto for “18 seasons and counting.”

WHERE’S THE REMOTE?

“Drew says he wants to keep this job for the rest of his career, and when you just look at the ratings, he’s still one of the biggest draws on daytime TV in the entire country,” the source revealed.

The Price is Right is currently the third most popular show on CBS, according to US TVDB.

Price is Right fans call out ‘creepy game’ and beg host Drew Carey to ‘cut’ it from show ahead of new season
It’s also the 19th most popular show overall on TV, watched, on average, by 3 to 4 million people per day.

“But who’s really watching this show? It’s tricky to determine exactly how many prisons, nursing homes, and hospitals have The Price is Right on every day but it’s certainly a high percentage,” the source continued.

Like many game shows, The Price is Right has had to adapt to pique the interest of younger viewers.

The Price is Right Hosts

The Price is Right first came on TV in 1972. Fans fell in love with the game show so much that it has been on for over 50 years. Throughout that time, the show has had a few different hosts. Find out who they are below.

Bob Barker – 1972 to June 2007 (also became executive producer in 1988)

Drew Carey – October 2007 to present

Dennis James – filled in for Bob in 1974 when he missed four episodes, also hosted the nighttime version

Craig Ferguson – 2014 April Fools Day Special

The main changes on the show, however, have been with the prizes they award.

Gone are the grandfather clocks and sewing machine kits that were seen on the show in the ’70s and ’80s.

Instead, the show now includes popular items like VR headsets and other electronics, subscription boxes, and, millennials’ most prized “possession,” experiences, like week-long vacations and cooking classes.

However, the same cannot be said for the show’s lack of innovation when it comes to gameplay.

“If there’s an overriding problem with the show, it’s around innovation,” the source revealed.

Fans and viewers have called Rat Race ‘creepy’ because of the colorful rat replicas used in the gameCredit: CBS
“Ever since [former executive producer and close confidante of Drew Carey] Mike Richards left the series, something has been missing and the whole thing feels like it’s on autopilot,” they said.

“Yes, they’ve had some recent success with prime-time specials and stunts like full episodes featuring only pairs of identical twins as contestants, but this is a show that is riding on a lot of very old ideas and Drew takes all his cues from the work Bob Barker did for 35 years.”

Bob Barker was the series’ longest-running host, telling viewers to “come on down!” from 1972 until his retirement in June 2007.

THE PRICE NEEDS SOME SPICE

“The show is not a place where Drew experiments or rolls out new comedy bits,” the source continued.

“In fact, some of the jokes he tells the contestants when the cameras are off during the commercial breaks are downright corny and I don’t think he’d ever say them on a proper stand-up comedy stage.”

Drew got his start as a comedian and actor, and famously starred in his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show.

“And especially since Mike Richards left five years ago, Drew isn’t pitching in much behind the scenes, but he doesn’t have to.

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Drew Carey explains the rules of Rat Race to one of the contestants on The Price is RightCredit: CBS
“It’s a turn-key job for him and he does it in a very predictable, reliable way,” the source added.

“Everything about the show revolves around Drew’s shockingly traditional, smooth approach.

“Even the show’s logo has barely changed in 50 years,” the source said.

The Price is Right’s logo has undergone some cosmetic enhancements, though like the source said, the changes have been minimal at best.

The show did, however, move into a new studio in Glendale, California, ahead of its 52nd season, which premiered in September 2023.

“The philosophy at CBS is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and The Price is Right might be the best example of that in all of television.

“Drew and The Price is Right team rely on what works and that’s [what has] kept them on the air all these years,” the source revealed.

Drew, who’s hosted the game show since Bob Barker’s retirement in 2007, has now been the host of The Price is Right for 17 years.

“I just show up and punch the clock and hope I have a job every day,” the host told TV Insider in June.

Time will tell whether Drew’s reliability – and predictability – will keep him around, or whether the show will switch things up in the future.

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Drew Carey has hosted the game show for 17 yearsCredit: Getty

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Manuela Arbelaez claps for the contestant as Drew Carey shakes his hand

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Some fans are getting tired of Drew’s ‘corny’ jokes on the show’s setCredit: CBS