A former contestant from The Price Is Right called out the show’s host, Drew Carey, suggesting he’s not a fan.
Drew began hosting the popular game show in 2007, taking over for legend Bob Barker upon retirement.
In his time as host, viewers have seen new games introduced, including the polarizing Rat Race, and some fans have even called out games as “rigged.”
Although many fans approve of Drew’s hosting since he replaced Barker, he’s failed to receive any Emmy nominations for Outstanding Game Show Host.
Barker received 23 Emmy nominations as the host and won 14 Emmys during his long tenure with the game show.
In recent remarks, a multi-time audience member and former contestant slammed Carey, indicating he didn’t like him as the show’s host.
Former TPIR contestant questions Drew getting the hosting job without any audition
Ted Slauson is considered a superfan of The Price Is Right, having appeared in the studio audience 37 times and participating in an episode of the game show as a contestant in 1992.
Due to watching the show a lot and appearing in the audience so many times, Slauson was knowledgeable about item prices.
He yelled helpful information out to contestants when they were playing price games. In his 1992 appearance on the game show, he reached the Showcase Showdown but lost.
He later became the subject of Amazon Prime’s Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much documentary.
His time on the show occurred during the Barker era, and he has a high regard for the late game show host.
He also knew about The Price Is Right bringing in Barker’s potential replacement as host and indicated it was a surprise when Drew got the gig.
“I think everybody’s reaction, everyone who was a super fan of the show, was kind of like, Huh? And what was really strange was they had auditioned many – probably close to 10, maybe 12, different [host candidates], and they would do it between tapings or after a taping,” Slauson told The U.S. Sun.
Slauson said actor and TV host Mario Lopez was one of the candidates who auditioned for the host job during a “mini version of the show,” which included a studio audience.
Mike Richards also auditioned for the host job and became the game show’s executive producer from 2009 to 2019.
According to Slauson, Drew didn’t participate in auditions, instead getting offered the job by The Price Is Right’s production company or someone else.
He said it was surprising to see Drew hired as host as he’s so much different from how Barker was while hosting.
Slauson says Carey needs to ‘do something different’ as TPIR host
While speaking to The U.S. Sun, Slauson said he met The Price Is Right’s former executive producer, Roger Dobkowitz, several times because he was involved in the same Amazon Prime documentary about the show that Slauson stars in.
Dobkowitz also worked with Drew during some of Drew’s time as the game show’s host.
According to Slauson, Dobkowitz’s stories revealed he “would try to get [Drew] to do certain things, and Drew would just push back on so much of it.”
“It’s like he just was going to do things the way he wanted to do them, and it’s like, okay. So that’s why you’ll see when people spin the wheel behind anyone, like, it’s the same over and over and over. And after a while, it’s like, do something different,” Slauson said about Drew’s hosting.
“Everything is always the same. ‘Next prize, please.’ I’m like, seriously, you can’t come up with something different at least a couple times during the show? But I don’t get paid the money. He gets paid, so,” the former contestant said.
Many longtime fans seem to still enjoy the game show due to its unique pricing games and exciting moments when contestants win.
Some even seem to support Drew as host. However, others, including Slauson, likely want Drew to leave the show in favor of another host.
Still, the former Whose Line Is It Anyway? star seems to have no plans of retiring anytime soon, even mentioning reaching records held by other legendary game show hosts.