Country Stars Come on Down on The Price Is Right

I can’t remember the last time I watched a TV game show. Probably when I was a kid and stayed home from school “sick” because I was trying to avoid a math test or something. But I was glued to one this morning, when Heidi Newfield and Reba McEntire came on down to The Price Is Right.

Host Drew Carey is reason enough to watch, giving this show a very fresh feel. And I don’t know if they normally do this when they have special shows, but he did a great job taking the country theme to the extreme. Coming out with a horse, having his assistants dress in cowboy boots, Wrangler tops and plaid shirts, and having Newfield introduce the first item up for bid all helped push the show’s salute to the ACM Awards.

The first big prize was a collection of 28 CDs from the ACM nominees and a Bose stereo system. Actual retail price? $3,465. Other country-themed prizes included Reba McEntire’s Southwestern-influenced luggage set from Dillard’s, a $1,373 acoustic Ibanez guitar and an over-the-top set of trips to see Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum,Kenny Chesney, Sugarland, George Strait and Brooks & Dunn concerts all over the country and abroad. The actual retail price? Around $20,000.

I had to wait until close to the end, during the “showcase showdown,” to see Newfield again. But it was worth the wait to see her go crazy on the harmonica. Then McEntire came out to pitch the ACM show and deliver this even better news: Whoever won the big prize at the end of the show got a little something extra — two passes to the ACM Awards rehearsals, the actual awards show and then the tribute to George Strait as the ACM’s Artist of the Decade.

It’s hard not to be thrilled for people who win anything these days. But when the prizes all revolve around country music, it takes the excitement up a notch. It kind of made every prize a grand prize.