CBS cast the net pretty wide to replace Bob Barker on The Price Is Right before bidding successfully on Drew Carey. “I was on that list!” Donny Osmond said at the after-party for the final performance of Beauty and the Beast, in which he reprised the role of Gaston. “I’m very upset” about losing that career-making “Showcase Showdown,” he said (though, of course, George Hamilton and Rosie O’Donnell didn’t get it either). But he tried to be generous, calling Carey “a perfect choice. America loves him. He’s quick, he’s fast, he’s funny, and he knows it.” Osmond, who’s still a pop star in England, had the experience: He hosted The Great American Dream Vote (“That was a disaster!”), as well as Pyramid for a few years. He’s still “giving away other people’s money” on the U.K. Pyramid, as well as a Brit show called Identity. A CBS spokesperson said Osmond wasn’t one of the candidates they ultimately had audition.

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Justin Ravitz
• Table of Contents: Aug 13, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!