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Drew Carey has revealed that The Price Is Right had a strict “no meat” policy when he originally took over the show in 2007.
“Now, we have fake meat,” Carey, 66, gleefully announced during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, February 24.
Carey was reflecting on the legacy of his Price Is Right predecessor Bob Barker, a noted animal rights advocate who closed every episode of the show by encouraging viewers to have their pets “spayed or neutered.”
“[Barker] was a pioneer in having testicles removed from animals,” host Jimmy Kimmel joked during his interview with Carey.
Carey explained that Barker’s animal rights stances were adopted by the whole Price Is Right staff, so there was no real meat – or even fake meat – anywhere on set in those days.
“[Barker] really walked the walk,” the comic 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 [as prizes].”
According to Carey, The Price Is Right‘s “no meat” policy went so far as to strictly show fake veggies as props on the grills being given away as prizes on the show.
“They never had plastic meat,” he declared. “They wouldn’t even show fake meat. It would just be all vegetables, asparagus and stuff!”
Carey confirmed that he had the policy changed once he took over from Barker, who retired in 2007 after 35 years as The Price Is Right‘s host. Kimmel offered a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Barker may have had “the right idea” since he lived to age 99 before his death in August 2023.
“Maybe we should stop eating those plastic steaks,” the ABC talk show host quipped.
Carey celebrates the milestone 10,000th episode of The Price Is Right on Wednesday, February 26. In a recent interview with Us Weekly, he admitted he initially had “no idea’ how long he’d last as Barker’s replacement.
“I mainly didn’t want to get the show canceled or be responsible for ruining such an institution,” he remembered. “Once I got comfortable after a couple of years, it felt like it was more my show instead of me just being a steward of somebody else’s. And now I just want to do it forever, as long as I’m mentally and physically able to show up. It’s such a fun thing! The money’s nice, but it’s just a cool job. I don’t have to go to work, I get to go to work! It’s a privilege to be here, an honor. So we’ll see how long I hold up.”
The comedian has seen The Price Is Right through numerous memorable on-air disasters, including one notorious segment from 2023 when a contestant dislocated his shoulder after winning a game of Bonkers. When it came time for the injured contestant to spin the Big Wheel, Carey improvised by having the player’s wife fill in.
In December 2024, the host repeatedly poked fun at The Price Is Right‘s “judgmental” studio audience after they reacted negatively to a contestant’s strategy for the iconic game Switcheroo.
Prior to joining the CBS game show, Carey starred in more than 200 episodes of classic ABC comedy series The Drew Carey Show and hosted the American version of improv comedy competition Whose Line Is It Anyway? from 1998 to 2007.
The Price Is Right airs weekdays on CBS at 11 a.m. ET. Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights on ABC at 11:35 p.m. ET.
