Richard Wayne "Rich" Fields (born November 30, 1960 from Bay Village, Ohio) began his career as a radio host in 1979 at KCBS-FM in Los Angeles, later working as an announcer at Universal Studios in Hollywood. He also performed announcing duties on Florida's lottery game show Flamingo Fortune (1995-99), filling in as host for at least one episode.
He is good friends with current Wheel announcer Jim Thornton, and both were on radio shows together on KNX radio in Los Angeles.
The Price Is Right
Fields' most famous work was announcer of Price from 2004-10, a role which he repeatedly stated was his "dream job" after watching original announcer Johnny Olson (coincidentally, he and Thornton both announced on Price just after Rod Roddy's death). Shortly after being hired, the podium his predecessors worked from was disposed of; rather than see it destroyed, he retrieved the podium and put it on display in his home. He also handled hosting duties on the first two Price video games for Wii and PC, as well as doing most of the announcing.
Rich became somewhat disliked by fans during the first half of Season 37 (2008-09), when he became the subject of many Showcase skits which were perceived as demeaning to him. Following Season 38, he was fired due to unspecified reasons only described as "a mess of his own making and didn't have anything to do with The Price Is Right" (TMZ claimed he was a victim of identify theft, while someone claiming to be a close friend said that "he was getting tired, having too many personal problems"). Whatever the case, it is known that Fremantle extremely disliked him, wanting him gone when Bob Barker left in 2007, and that executive producer Mike Richards wanted an improv comedian to interact with Drew. After another round of on-air auditions, George Gray replaced Rich in 2011.
Wheel of Fortune
Rich filled in as announcer on for the weeks of November 22-December 13, 2010 and the week of January 31, 2011. He had the second-longest run of tryouts for any of the guest announcers, doing nine weeks of shows.
While some of these shows had Rich dubbed over Charlie O'Donnell (who had died on November 1), some fans noted/claimed that he had little to none of his Price-era energy even on episodes where he was in the studio.
Other Work
Rich in 2020.
After Price, Rich served as announcer of Drew Carey's Improv-a-Ganza, which ran on GSN for a few months in 2011. He also was a guest performer for one episode.
After retiring from CBS News, Rich and his wife Christine left Los Angeles and purchased property in Clearwater Beach, Florida, where they live today. In 2020, he served as a spokesman for the Moving Families Initiative. He is now retired from broadcasting and is now a motivational speaker.