Drew Carey to host Bob Barker ‘Price is Right’ tribute show

Game show fans around the world mourned the death of longtime “The Price is Right” host Bob Barker last Saturday, and Drew Carey was definitely among them. Now Carey will pay tribute to the man whose show he now emcees with “The Price is Right: A Tribute to Bob Barker.”

The one-hour special will air at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday on CBS and will also be available to stream on Paramount+. The program is set to feature favorite on-camera moments and memories from Barker’s 35-year-long career on the popular game show.

It should have plenty of material to pull from: The modern version of “The Price is Right” that many Americans know and love launched on Sept. 4, 1972, as a revival of the 1950s version hosted by Bill Cullen. Barker was the genial emcee for that very first show, and his name remained synonymous with “The Price is Right” even after he handed over the microphone to his successor Drew Carey in 2007. Barker was known for his warm and helpful nature toward guests and for his animal activism. For years, he signed off every episode with an appeal to “have your pets spayed or neutered.”

The tribute show will feature highlights like Adam Sandler’s poetic ode to Barker on that 2007 farewell show and the legendary host’s return to the studio for his 90th birthday in 2018.

The 2023 “The Price is Right” season was the last one to be shot in the historic Bob Barker Studios, the Los Angeles location where it was filmed for the entirety of its run. (It had been simply Studio 33 at Television City Studios until it was renamed in 1988 in honor of the longtime host.) Carey is set to return for season 52 when it begins filming at Haven Studios in Glendale, California.