I’m not sure where speculation begins and absurdity ends with this question, so I won’t go near touching the ‘who’ or ‘when’ angle of Carey’s eventual retirement other than it probably won’t be anytime soon. The Price is Right remains hugely successful in a dying daytime TV landscape — much like a GNC or Bath & Body Works can usually be found in a dead mall, you can’t kill it. It’s there. It serves its purpose. And just as when the developer decides to demolish the mall — and those remaining stores relocate as long as they’re still getting business — so shall The Price is Right live on for so long as there is an audience and it is profitable through advertising and/or streaming subscription revenue, no matter who the host is or where its home resides. Period.
If you had asked me 10 years ago when I joined the board (man that’s really been a whole decade ago, huh?), I probably would have been far more pessimistic about the show’s future. 1) Even then, the writing was on the wall for traditional TV. The future wasn’t yet clear, but ‘cord cutting’ was already very much a thing, and it seemed like only a matter of time before the TV landscape would change drastically. And it has, though not in the same ways I would have speculated then, much less five years ago. 2) I still wasn’t fully warmed up to Drew. I tried. Season 42 was the first season I had made watching the show a priority since S35, and slowly but surely, I would grow to greatly enjoy and appreciate Drew and the show as it is today. But as my history here probably tells, I wasn’t nearly as fond of ‘the new way of doing things’ back then, including Drew as host, and I definitely wouldn’t have guessed he would still be hosting 10 years later, much less me enjoying it (including him) as much as I enjoyed watching Bob when I was younger! If my opinion has changed this much during that time, attempting to have some sort of concept of what the next 10 years or so will hold is pointless.
Finally, suppose the day does come, and Drew gets to retire while the show is still on top, allowing for another change at guard like in 2007. I can guarantee the names I’m seeing tossed around here as a replacement will be about as relevant then as the names that were tossed around before Drew was announced as host are relevant now. I haven’t heard Dave Price or John O’Hurley’s names tossed around here in a long, long time. James Corden? More like ‘James…who?’ if/when Drew retires, seeing he will no longer be employed by CBS soon.
Live for the present. Embrace the future. Our favorite game show is still producing excellent, high quality, exciting, hour-long* shows every weekday throughout its traditional season window. It’s as good as it’s been in a long, long time. If the 1980s were the ‘good ole days’ for the Barker era, so is RIGHT NOW for the Carey era. Don’t worry about what the future holds. It will play out in due time. Enjoy what we have right in front of us in the meantime!
*”Its the fabulous, 38-minute Price is Right!”