Bob Barker, beloved host of ‘The Price is Right,’ has died at 99
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Bob Barker, who spent 35 of his 50 years in the TV industry as the beloved host of “The Price is Right,” has died at the age of 99.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,” Barker’s publicist, Roger Neal, said in a statement Saturday, per NBC News.
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Bob Barker, a game show hosting master
Barker was a local-radio personality when he left the world of broadcasting to step into the game show realm. It started in 1956 with a gig as host of the show “Truth or Consequences,” which he would ultimately helm for 18 years, the Deseret News previously reported.
That same year saw the debut of “The Price is Right,” which struggled after “its glory days in the late ’50s” before being revamped in 1972 with Barker as the new face of the show, NBC News.
“In Barker, the show found its voice, and it has continued to air a decade and a half after he retired,” Ethan Sacks wrote for NBC News.
Barker retired from “The Price is Right” in 2007 — after putting in about 50 years as a game show host.
“The question that I’m hearing most often now is why did I choose to retire just now?” Barker told the Deseret News in 2007. “And I will explain that to you. In December, I became 83 years old, and I want to retire while I’m still young.”
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In that Deseret News interview, Barker reflected on the success of “The Price is Right,” which became the longest-running game show during his tenure as host. He said everyone has an opinion on what something should cost — although he did admit he’d be “a terrible contestant.”
“I know nothing about prices,” he said. “I’ve never paid any attention because I can’t win.”
The game show host said “The Price is Right” helped people forget their problems for an hour. His role in making that happen, he said, was to be a host that made viewers feel at ease.
“In order to forget your problems, you have to be comfortable,” Barker said. “And if you see a host up there who is anything but comfortable, you’re not very comfortable either.”
In his 35 years on the show, Barker only missed one taping — four episodes, according to USA Today. Barker’s retirement didn’t keep him off “The Price is Right,” though. He came back two years later to promote his memoir “Priceless Memories.” And although he kept busy in retirement, primarily as an animal rights advocate, Barker said he missed the thrill of the game show.
“I could never have done this show if I hadn’t enjoyed it, and one of the things I enjoyed was the excitement with the audience, the fun with the audience, the responses of the audience,” Barker said in 2009, per The Associated Press. “I’d done audience participation my entire adult life.”
Comedian Drew Carey took over for Barker as host of “The Price is Right” in 2007.
“I’d never met anybody who’d had a job that long,” Carey told “CBS Sunday Morning” in 2021. “That’s like, unheard of anymore.”
How did Bob Barker die?
Barker died in his Los Angeles home of natural causes, People reported.
“I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,” Barker’s girlfriend, Nancy Burnet, said in a statement, per People. “We were great friends over these 40 yrs. He will be missed.”
CBS network, which is home to “The Price is Right,” mourned the loss of Barker in a statement provided to the Deseret News, calling him one of daytime television’s “most iconic stars.”
“During his 35 years as host of ‘The Price is Right,’ Bob made countless people’s dreams come true and everyone feel like a winner when they were called to ‘come on down,” the statement reads. “In addition to his legendary 50-year career in broadcasting, Bob will be remembered as a dedicated animal rights activist. Daytime television has lost one of its most iconic stars.”
Carey, Barker’s “Price is Right” successor, also paid tribute to the legendary host.
“Very sad day for the Price Is Right family, and animal lovers all over the world,” Carey shared in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “There hasn’t been a day on set that I didn’t think of Bob Barker and thank him. I will carry his memory in my heart forever.”
Barker died just a few months shy of turning 100.
“He had a wonderful life,” his publicist said, per ABC News.
