Drew Carey Says ‘The Price Is Right’ Contestants Are Constantly Drunk, Stoned or Worse
Even on daytime television, it’s five o’clock somewhere.
Everyone who has ever watched even a single episode of The Price Is Right on a lazy summer afternoon or during a sick day from elementary school has wondered what got into a particularly enthusiastic contestant who stumbled their way to the four podiums at the front of the house while shouting, flailing and gyrating with joy. After all, not every game show features such frantic, uncoordinated theatrics from its volunteers — imagine how unhinged Jeopardy! would be if those brainiacs burst into tears, screamed with excitement or peed their pants every time Ken Jennings called their names.
Well, The Price Is Right host Drew Carey knows exactly what gets into his audience participants. In fact, he can smell it on their breath. In a recent interview with TV Insider, Carey said that his contestants constantly run the gamut of intoxicants in their systems while they try to guess the sticker price of whichever vacuum or home speaker system sits in front of their blurred vision.
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Hopefully, no Price Is Right winners actually try to drive that brand new, fully loaded Hyundai Genesis home, otherwise they’ll have to quickly “come on down” for a field sobriety test.
When TV Insider writer Kate Hahn furtively asked Carey if he ever suspects one of the many Price Is Right maniacs who scream into his hand mic has had a little too much “liquid courage,” Carey was hilariously blunt in admitting how, when a lucky and lubricated contestant carefully sways their way up the stairs to the top of the Plinko board, their inebriation is even more obvious up close.
“Oh, that happens here all the time. They’ll have a gummy, or I’ll smell alcohol on their breath. Not unusual,” Carey said of the common occurrence of intoxicated Price Is Right competitors. Carey even has a favorite f---ed-up contestant, telling his interviewer, “There was a guy here that was tripping on mushrooms. He came with a bunch of friends. He was a sketch (comedy) guy. I found out later when I went to (Upright Citizens Brigade) to hang out, and they were like, ‘Did you see that guy who claimed to be a skateboarding rabbi?’”
Carey recalled of the competitor in question, comedian Josh Androsky, “I asked him what he did for a living. And he goes, ‘I’m a skateboarding rabbi.’ He didn’t think he was going to get picked, and he totally tripped.”
Androsky himself admitted as much when he posted the above video to his YouTube channel, writing in 2012, “Hi. I’m an idiot and I took mushrooms, got drunk, then went on The Price Is Right and lied to Drew Carey’s melting face. (HE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN NICER).”
Carey recently revealed that, in the event that a Price Is Right contestant becomes so overexcited that they wet themselves, the producers have an emergency pair of dry pants available to maintain what dignity the piddling participant has left. Those pants probably come in handy for those blasted, boozy competitors Carey mentioned, but I’m not sure they would have done much if Androsky’s time on The Price is Right turned into a bad trip — the show should also invest in a spare pair of jeans that’s guaranteed not to be made of snakes.
