Cleveland native Rich Fields out as Price Is Right announcer

CLEVELAND - Off-the-air stories for perennial daytime game show The Price Is Right are looking like on-the-air stories for its counterpart daytime soap operas. Entering its 39th season, the show is having a very public mid-life crisis.

First, host and Cleveland native Drew Carey showed up at a summer press tour looking skinny having dropped 70 pounds.

Earlier, former host Bob Barker made comments about Carey's hosting of the show to a TMZ cameraman. When those comments were construed to be less than flattering, Barker issued a statement praising Carey.

But the biggest change this off-season will be seen by viewers on the air this September.

Another Cleveland native, announcer Rich Fields, is out. Fields grew up in Bay Village and Avon before his family moved to Florida.

As a teenager, Fields visited The Price Is Right. He talked then announcer and game show legend Johnny Olson into letting him do a "Come On Down" audition.

Fields' replacement -- or make that replacements -- will be a rotation of improv comics.

Fields had been the announcer since 2004, having replaced longtime announcer Rod Roddy. Roddy died in 2003 following a long battle with cancer.

Fields announced his departure in a letter posted on his website. In the letter, he mentioned other possible changes including live bands performing making it a variety show inside a game show.

Read the letter here:
http://www.richfields.tv/release.html

Requests for comment from CBS about Fields and format changes were forwarded to the show's producer, Fremantle Media. Further requests for comment from Fremantle were not returned.