‘The Price Is Right’ Host Drew Carey Wants to Do More Primetime Specials

“I would love to try to fill in during primetime, but CBS is kicking butt right now,” he tells THR as the show is set to air three reality crossover specials. “There’s no place to put us.”

The Price is Right Primetime Edition Survivor – Publicity – H 2016

Cliff Lipson/CBS

The Price Is Right is venturing into primetime with three CBS reality crossover specials starting Monday.

The specials will feature former contestants on CBS’ Survivor, Big Brother and The Amazing Race, who will “come on down” and compete for their charities of choice. Survivor castaways will include Natalie Anderson (season 29), Jeremy Collins (seasons 29 and 31), and Joe Anglim (seasons 30 and 31). Competing houseguests from Big Brother will include Frankie Grande (season 16), Britney Godwin (seasons 12 and 14) and James Huling (season 17). Meanwhile, former Race-rs Leo Temory and Jamal Zadaran (seasons 23 and 24) and Tyler Oakley and Korey Kuhl (season 28) will compete. They will be playing alongside superfans of their respective shows.

This marks a return to primetime for the long-running game show. Various primetime specials have aired over the years, in addition to a few summer series, including one that saluted members of the military, police and firefighters following 9/11 and another titled The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular that offered prizes worth more money than those on the daytime show.

Show host Drew Carey told The Hollywood Reporter that he is looking forward to getting back into primetime, even if just for a few nights. “I would love to try to fill in during primetime, but CBS is kicking butt right now,” he said. “There’s no place to put us.”

Each series will have its own night to compete, complete with appearances by their respective hosts. Carey said he was happy to have Survivor’s Jeff Probst, Big Brother’s Julie Chen and The Amazing Race’s Phil Keoghan on the show and was especially excited to see Probst conduct the iconic extinguishing of a castaway’s torch on set. (Carey was in the audience for the live finale of Survivor: Kaoh Rong on Wednesday to promote the Price Is Right specials.)

Carey said his favorite part of filming the specials was observing the way the reality veterans conducted themselves in the game. “They have different styles,” he said, noting the straightforward playing method of The Amazing Race as opposed to the strategic maneuvering characteristic of Big Brother and Survivor. 

The primetime specials will air 8-9 p.m. Monday (Survivor), Tuesday (Big Brother) and Wednesday (The Amazing Race) on CBS.