Drew Carey - The Healing Power of Humor

He's delivered laughs by the million. Now, as The Price Is Right marks 10,000 episodes, the host and comedy icon talks to Us about his career, his mental-health challenges and why we should say 'I love you' as often as 'hello'

- JOANNA POWELL & AMANDA WILLIAMS

Drew Carey has a joke he likes to tell studio audiences at The Price Is Right.

"I'm just a regular guy from Cleveland," he'll deadpan. "My girlfriend ties me to the bed one leg at a time, just like everyone else." There's a grain of truth in there: Carey, 66, is from Cleveland. But with a career trajectory that's made him officially beloved - not to mention legendary on the internet for his deep-pocketed tipping habits! - he's far from a regular guy. Since 1991, when the unknown stand-up debuted on The Tonight Show and a wowed Johnny Carson invited him to the couch for a chat, Carey has been a comic sensation. He masterminded a highly original TV series, The Drew Carey Show (see page 49). Then, in 2007, when he inherited the so-called "skinny microphone" from The Price Is Right's iconic host, Bob Barker, Carey again hit the jackpot, managing to maintain stellar ratings for the classic game show (CBS, weekdays, 11 A.M.) without alienating loyalists.

Offstage, however, things have been less linear. Like many comedians, Carey is well acquainted with darkness. His father died when he was 8, and in his teens and 20s, he twice attempted suicide with sleeping pills.

In 2020, Carey was shattered when his former fiancée, Amie Harwick, a therapist, was murdered by an ex-boyfriend.

Recently, the often-bespectacled funnyman talks to Us about triumphing over tragedy, the satisfaction of playing games for work and why he signs off The Price Is Right by saying, "I love you."

Congratulations on the milestones you're about to celebrate: the 30th anniversary of your brainchild The Drew Carey Show as well as the 10,000th episode of The Price Is Right, which airs Feb. 26. Do you take time to reflect on markers like these?