Drew Carey, Come On Down!

Mon., Jul. 23, 2007 3:38 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

Note to dogs and cats everywhere: Looks like Drew Carey's going to be on your case, as it were.

Carey has been tapped to replace Bob Barker as game-show host of the daytime TV institution, The Price Is Right, CBS confirmed Monday.

Barker, 83, handed in his long, skinny microphone in June. The silver-haired personality hosted Price for 35 years, becoming a one-man daytime TV institution and a noted animal-rights advocate who signed off each telecast asking audiences to spay and neuter their pets.

There was no word if Carey intended to carry on Barker's pet-population-control mantra.

Carey announced his new job during a taping for Monday's Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. Per Carey, negotiations wrapped up very, very shortly before he was to walk out on Letterman's stage.

"During your Harry Potter bit—honestly, it was like 15 minutes ago—they called me," Carey told Letterman. "It's a done deal. I'm the new host of The Price Is Right."

Carey said CBS first approached him about the job after he shot the pilot for the network's upcoming prime-time game show, Power of 10.

The 49-year-old comic is already a prime-time fixture, having starred in his own 1995-2004 ABC sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and laughed at whatever tangent Colin Mochrie went off on as moderator of the 1998-2006 improv show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

The Carey-hosted Power of 10 is set to premiere on CBS on Aug. 7. His first day of work on Price was not announced.

This summer, there was no hotter TV question than who would succeed Barker, whose 6,586th and last episode of The Price Is Right aired June 15. Names rumored to have been in play included the Dancing with the Stars quartet of George Hamilton, Mario Lopez, John O'Hurley and Ian Ziering.

Rosie O'Donnell, late of The View, wrote on her blog that she'd talked to CBS about the gig but declined to pursue the job when it became clear she'd have to relocate from the East Coast to Los Angeles.

Outgoing ESPN personality Dan Patrick, the candidate with the most Barker-esque hair, told his radio audience he turned down a chance to audition for Price on account of he just didn't want to.

Speaking to TV critics last week, network boss Nina Tassler deemed the search "daunting."

"You talk about Bob," Tassler said. "I mean, those are the biggest shoes in Hollywood to fill...This man is a legend. He's an icon. When we knew he was talking about retiring, the search began. It's a really, really daunting task. There's everyone else in the world, and there's Bob Barker."

If Price Is Right tradition holds, new host Carey will have to keep track of showcases, models, excited out-of-town contestants and the value of a good living-room set.

Oh, and the spaying-and-neutering thing.