As Gary told you the other day, Rich Fields has been let go from his position as the announcer on 'The Price is Right.' This is too bad. Fields has done a fine job since taking over the role in 2004, having a good rapport with both Bob Barker and now Drew Carey.

There's a lot of talk about what they're going to do. Fields himself said in a statement on his site that they're going to be auditioning stand-up comics. Alex at BuzzerBlog says that besides former 'Shop 'Til You Drop' host J.D. Roberto announcing an episode this week (the show has started taping new episodes for the fall this week), comics Jeff Davis and Brad Sherwood will try out too.

Here are a few ideas for new announcers. Some could work out, some are long-shots.

Shadoe Stevens. Hey, why not? He has one of the classic game show announcer voices, doing everything from 'Hollywood Squares' to various specials. And he currently does the announcing on 'The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson,' so he's already at CBS.

Of course, he will always be 'Max Monroe: Loose Cannon' to me.

Burton Richardson. He was the announcer on 'The Arsenio Hall Show' and was a fill-in for both Rod Roddy and Rich Fields the past decade and does other game shows. He could probably slip into the spot quickly.

Dave Price. The 'Early Show' co-host tried out for the host job before Carey got it and could be a good fit with him, but then again he seems a lot like Rich Fields so it probably wouldn't happen.

Kathy Kinney. Keep the announcing job in the Carey family. She has already done a couple of appearances on the show (one time actually controlling the whole episode) and has the comic background. And imagine the buzz having a female announcer would generate.

But she can't do it as Mimi. That would be too much to take every single day.

Marc Summers. He's done it before. Of course, at this point in his career Summers would probably want to host the show and not just be the announcer. But if they're going to give the announcer a bigger role maybe it would be a good move.

Alan Kalter. OK, a massive long-shot, since he's all set in New York over at 'The Late Show.' But just imagine how his voice would sound saying "Come on down!" Maybe he can fly to L.A. and do 'The Price is Right' and still do 'The Late Show' too.

Vance DeGeneres. Ellen's brother. Not only has he been a comedy writer and actor on such shows as 'The Daily Show' and 'Ellen' (not to mention Mr. Hands in the original "Mr. Bill" shorts on 'Saturday Night Live'), he was co-host of a failed revival of 'Let's Make A Deal' in 2003 (with Billy Bush as host, gah). He could be the Mangum to Carey's Brady.

John Hodgman. I thought the PC guy did a fine (if quirky) job announcing the Emmys a couple of years ago. Not sure if he has the energy level for 'The Price is Right,' but it would be an interesting choice. Maybe two geeky guys with glasses would be overkill though.

Joel Godard. He's not going to be on Conan's new show so he might have the time. I would assume CBS wants to go with someone younger, so maybe...

The stand-up comic route is the way to go. One of the great aspects of the new 'Let's Make A Deal' is the banter between host Wayne Brady and announcer Jonathan Mangum. It feels real and doesn't seem forced at all, and the two are genuinely funny together. So maybe 'The Price is Right' is trying to do the same thing.

I don't know if that will work though. 'Let's Make A Deal' has the structure for something like that -- we all remember that Jay Stewart used to interact with Monty Hall on the old version of the show and Mangum does it even more -- but 'The Price is Right' isn't set up that way. It has always been a game show where the host controls everything and the announcer stays at his spot and is rarely on camera (though they've changed that a bit and Fields has been on camera more).

But maybe the changes that the people at CBS are talking about involve more than just new games and new announcers. They probably want to go younger and change teh show a lot more than some fans might like. Maybe they're changing the entire structure of the show. Hmmm...

The only thing I ask is that they don't turn it into some reality-show type game show, where we learn about the tragic backgrounds of the contestants and see them interacting with people backstage via hand-held cameras and Drew reveals the final results on Switcheroo under dramatic lighting and music after a commercial break. I think I'd stop watching the show at that point.

Too bad Alex O'Loughlin has a new job. CBS would probably let him try out.

By the way, since they're actually auditioning people on the air, I wonder if Carey will acknowledge Fields and his contributions to the show? Stay tuned.

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