Drew Carey reveals Bob Barker’s love for animals led to a strict 'no meat' rule on 'Price is Right'
Drew Carey may not have been with "The Price is Right" since the beginning, but he has achieved immense popularity and also introduced some changes during his 18 years as the host. As soon as he took over from Bob Barker, Carey learned that his legendary predecessor had a few strict policies of his own on the set regarding meat, and he revealed them on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."
On the occasion of Price Is Right's 10,000th episode, Carey appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to talk and share a few insights from his show. He revealed that the show had a strict "no meat" policy when Barker, a noted animal rights advocate, was the host. Barker was also known to close every episode of the show by encouraging viewers to have their pets "spayed or neutered," for their better health. "[Barker] was a pioneer in having testicles removed from animals," host Jimmy Kimmel joked during his interview with Carey.
Carey then explained that Barker's animal rights stances were adopted by the entire staff, so there was no real meat on the show. "[Barker] really walked the walk," he said. "People don't know, I was telling [a Jimmy Kimmel Live!] producer before I was the host, The Price Is Right was a vegan show. Like, they had no meat products. They had no leather goods," he added. Carey went on to explain that the "no meat" policy was so strict that the producers only showed fake veggies as props on the grills that were displayed as prizes on the show. "They never had plastic meat. They wouldn't even show fake meat. It would just be all vegetables, asparagus, and stuff!" he shared. The comedian then revealed that the policy changed after he took over as the host in 2007. "Now, we have fake meat," Carey, gleefully announced.
However, Kimmel offered a tongue-in-cheek response to the change saying that Barker may have had "the right idea" since he lived to age 99. "Maybe we should stop eating those plastic steaks," the talk show host quipped. Earlier in the episode, the two iconic hosts talked about Carey's run on the show. Kimmel shared that Carey had hosted 3,317 episodes, but Barker had done more than 6,300 episodes. "I got a ways to go, man," Carey admitted. "You only have to do 18 more years and then you will be there," Kimmel added.
Carey had previously told TVInsider that he had no plans of retiring anytime soon, at least not until he had broken a few records. Carey is currently the longest-serving host of a game show, after "The Wheel of Fortune's" iconic host, Pat Sajak retired last year. “I don’t think in terms of I’m the longest one. I do have a goal: I want to keep going until I die. This is my 18th season. I’ve got to get the 35 and 41 so I can catch Bob Barker and Pat Sajak," he said in an interview.
