I realized that I did an entry back in October about The Price Is Right's 36th season premiere, but I also just noticed I never really gave much of a later review for how I think Drew is doing so far on the show.
I’ve enjoyed a lot of Drew’s other work over the years. For one, The Drew Carey Show, and secondly, Whose Line Is It Anyway. When I first heard that he was going to be the new host of Price, I really wasn’t as skeptical as I was when other host’s names popped up across forums. Drew’s name was never one that made me go “ehh… Drew would be good on the show IF--.” I’ll elaborate.
Todd Newton -- I was a Todd Newton supporter initially, but I'm kind of glad he didn't get picked the more I think about it. I liked him on Hollywood Showdown, but his job on Whammy!: The All-New Press Your Luck was an entirely different story. To me he was way too hyper, and WAY too loud, just like the revival itself was, and acted like the stereotypical game show host which I could not stand. Hollywood Showdown was different; I thought he was good on there. The volume was just right. It was like night and day. So in other words, “Todd Newton would be perfect IF he didn’t act like the stereotypical game show host.”
John O’Hurley -- John O'Hurley would be perfect IF he didn't start some annoying thing like jump at the losing horns like he did with the Feud 'try again' buzzer last season.” I think he’s capable of being a good host, and I enjoy him more than Richard Karn and without a single doubt more than Louie Anderson, but I’m so glad to see that jumping went away. I can see him developing traditions on this show that I find unfavorable.
This never occurred with Drew. And when I saw him on The Power of 10 and not leaving Whose Line out of my mind, I was convinced that he’d make a good game show host.
And I’ve been loving him on the show more and more everyday. For one, I like how he says “Hi, how are you doing, welcome to the show,” etc. to the contestants when it’s Item Up For Bids time. I also really like how happy he is on the show and how he uses his own sense of humor. And there are the phrases too. Some of them being “Shazam” for Double Prices, “Making friends, are we?” for someone bidding one dollar higher than the last person, and my personal favorite, “Alakazam!” during Half-Off. As I mentioned in the past, I love how he's not pretty much close to shouting at the contestants to hurry up every few minutes. I'm not saying that with Bob, the show was never fun, but I do find that there’s such an abundance of joy on the show now. To me, more than before than in the past several years. I always make an effort to try to at least watch if I can’t tape as often as possible.
Of course Drew’s making some mistakes or will make a few more in the near future. One of the biggest reasons I love a lot of the game show hosts that I do is because of the fact that they simply weren’t perfect, knew they weren’t perfect, and didn’t try to be. And anyone who’s ever watched the show before Drew came along (especially in the last 5 or so years) would know that Bob was never perfect all the time on this show either. And then there’s the fact that Drew has had about 80 pricing games to work with in his start. When Price was first revived in 1972, by the end of the taping of week one, there were only five, that’s right, FIVE pricing games, which consisted of the following: Any Number, Double Prices, Grocery Game, Bullseye (I), and Bonus Game. So I think it’s only fair that I give Drew the chance to learn a few pricing games at a time.
There is one thing that really frustrates me though. I’m pretty much more than willing to accept other people’s opinions about why they don’t like Drew himself as a host even if I don‘t agree with them, but there’s one thing I simply do not understand. I don’t get how some people say they don’t like Drew and they just seem to blame the man for everything. It’s not Drew’s fault that the contestants are obnoxious. It’s not Drew’s fault that you don’t like the new version of the theme music. It’s not Drew’s fault that you don’t like the new camera angles for the “come on down” portion of the show. And it’s not Drew’s fault that you don’t like the new set. Other people are responsible for making those changes. If you dislike Drew as a host, then you don’t like his “Alakazam’s” during Half-Off, his banter with Rich, his laugh, or his handling of the contestants, or anything that Drew does. If you don’t like the man on this show, I honestly think that some folks should at least try to be fair and at least blame him for something that HE does.
2 comments:
I absolutely agree. Drew has been such a breath of fresh air for this show. I love Bob Barker and always will, but c'mon folks. It was TIME FOR A CHANGE. Bob got to be somewhat crochety and sarcastic in his old age which became annoying to me. At least Drew is trying to have fun and is younger (not that I have anything against older hosts, but they were young once and we need some fresh new young faces in game show hosting) which is something!
I too love Drew on the Job. He really gets in the interacting with staff, contestants and models, something I can't remember seeing with Bob in the past 7 years. I read on the GSN Boards on one of the threads that talked about how evil Bob was once he was behind the scenes. Back on topic: I also think Drew isn't rushing contestants on everything and apologizes to the losing contestants in the SCSD and the SC, something that was a big problem during the Barker era, particularly in the last 7 years. Thank you, Drew. you breathed new life in this rather stale show.
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