Drew Carey finally shares his thoughts on retiring from 'Price is Right' — and it gets pretty dark

American TV fans were emotional when iconic game show host Pat Sajak bid farewell to "Wheel of Fortune" after being its face for four decades. Drew Carey took over the reins of "The Price Is Right" from Bob Barker only two decades back, but is as popular as Sajak. But as he grows older, Carey has also spoken about his plans for the future after ending his run on the show. 

Around the same time as Sajak retired, Carey revealed that he had no plans of retiring and intended to be the host of the show until his last breath. Carey's response got a bit dark as he shared that he even thought of dying on the sets. "Thoughts of dying on stage with a microphone in my hand have gone through my mind," Carey jokingly said in an exclusive interview with People magazine. "I never want to leave. I'm having such a good time there. Everybody treats me great and the cast is great and the production office is great," he further added. 

"The Price Is Right" is set to hit the milestone of filming the "10,000th episode' on February 26. Ahead of the celebration, Carey reflected similar feelings in another conversation with TV Insider. Carey said that he feels privileged to help the show make it to this landmark and it meant "everything" to him. “It’s such an honor to be on the show in the first place. I hate to use words like ‘institution’ for a TV show, but it is. I just can’t imagine it going anywhere, even though I know realistically, things change, and not everything lasts," Carey said.

Nevertheless, he re-affirmed that he plans to stay on the show for the next 10,000 episodes as well. "As long as I’m healthy and I can make it out there and physically do the job, I’ll keep doing it," Carey explained.

While the host effortlessly stepped into his predecessor Bob Barker's shoes, Carey once told PEOPLE that he initially turned down the offer from the show. “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, because I just had, after being on The Drew Carey Show and everything, I was done with the idea of just being on a show forever," he said.

He changed his mind later realizing that the hefty paychecks would go a long way in making his dream of owning a major league soccer team come true. In addition to that, the idea of giving away prizes and making people happy for a living also appealed to him, Carey told the outlet.

Now, he says that it was the best decision that he could make. “I get plenty of time off to travel and enjoy my life, and even during the week, I get four-day weekends, usually every month, I get like a week or 10 days off in a row. It’s like a better than any job," he told TV Insider in a recent interview.