The WGA strike cost a lot. The strike cost studios money but it also cost a great deal for the writers who made the decision to walk off the job in order to fight for what they felt they deserved. While some of the writers were in a financial position to not be hurt too badly by the loss of income, for many more it was a big hit, but luckily for them, Drew Carey was there.
If you’ve been following the WGA strike, you may have heard a story about Drew Carey, the host of The Price Is Right who reportedly agreed to pay for any meal eaten by members of the WGA for the duration of the strike at two L.A. restaurants. While Carey spoke very little publicly about what he was doing, Deadline estimates that the bill at Bob’s Big Boy and Swingers cost him somewhere in the neighborhood of a half million dollars. And Carey did ultimately confirm publicly what he was doing after the WGA deal was reached.
Yoooo @WGAWest members!!💔 Congrats! ❤️If the strike is officially over tomorrow you’ll have til midnight to have one last meal at Bob’s Big Boy or Swingers! GO CELEBRATE! Love you all!https://t.co/gDvTb8TlDiSeptember 27, 2023
Drew Carey reportedly makes somewhere north of $12 million per year hosting The Price is Right, which he took over from the late Bob Barker in 2007. Barker had an estate with $70 million when he passed away so game show hosting is a pretty decent gig. As such spending a half million dollars on food for people he will never meet isn’t an expense that’s going to break Drew Carey, but it’s also not an insignificant amount of money, even for him. Clearly, it was a cause Carey felt was worth supporting.
And it’s an amount of money that Drew Carey can afford, while simply buying lunch while they were out on the picket line would be a much more significant financial burden for a lot of the writers who were taking advantage of it. A lot of writers have been showering Carey with praise for what he did during the strike.
There were a lot of heroes in the WGA strike, but one stands above the rest.Thank you, Drew Carey. pic.twitter.com/vOHEvI5UWVSeptember 25, 2023
Reportedly, writers simply needed to show their WGA card at the restaurants, and whatever they ordered was simply added to the bill that Drew Carey had already agreed to pay. This made it incredibly easy for people to get food,
We’ve seen other celebrities do some pretty nice stuff due to the strikes. Dwayne Johnson made a massive donation to the fund being used to help out the people from all over Hollywood whose lives were inconvenienced by the strikes. He was one of several who used the wealth they had to help out those who hadn’t reached that level of success, but still made a living from the entertainment industry.
With writers back at work a lot of Hollywood can start going back to business as usual, but until the actors’ strike is resolved many more will still be waiting.