Drew Carey’s Initial Response to ‘Price Is Right’ Offer: ‘F*ck No!’

Like standup comedy where every single thing is funny and doesn't waste your time? Follow Cracked Comedy Club on Instagram & YouTube for exactly that. 

While Drew Carey’s name has become synonymous with The Price is Right for a generation of game show fans, he initially wasn’t pumped to invite contestants to “come on down!” In fact, his response to the show’s initial invitation to host was an ungracious “Fuck no.”

“I just wanted to be able to do things that were fun and interesting instead of having a 'job-job' or something I had to do every day,” Carey told PEOPLE. The comic had just finished years of work on The Drew Carey Show and was ready for a break. “I was done with the idea of just being on a show forever.”

But desires like wanting to buy into a Major League Soccer team can change a guy’s mind, especially because you can’t earn that kind of scratch doing four shows a week at regional Chuckle Shacks. In addition to Carey wanting in on Seattle Sounders FC (he’s now a part-owner), he also loves throwing cash around, as evidenced by all of the meals he bought for striking union members last summer. 

“One of the show’s producers asked me what my favorite thing to do was,” Carey remembered. “I go, ‘I love leaving big tips when I go to restaurants.’ ‘Well, if you work on The Price Is Right, you’ll be able to do that all the time for a living,’ they said. ‘Just give out things.’ That was the light bulb that went off in my head.”

That bulb illuminated with the sound of a cash register’s ka-ching! Carey could make it rain whenever and wherever he wanted. “I could just make a living giving prizes to people and being around happy people all day,” Carey said. “I met (my agent) at a steakhouse. And I go, 'I think I want to be the host of The Price is Right.' He shook my hand and goes, ‘Well, there’s your soccer money.’”

Carey still considers Bob Barker to be The Price Is Right’s classic host and pays tribute at the end of every episode with a reminder to spay or neuter your pets. But he also knows that the game show has become part of his own legacy. "My lawyer told me, ‘You know, once you do this, that’s going to be it for the rest of your life. This is what you’re going to be known for,’" Carey said. 

One can almost imagine the comic fanning himself with $100 bills as he says, “I’m cool with that."