'Price Is Right' temporarily suspends production after death of host Drew Carey's former fiancee

Following the death of game-show host Drew Carey's former fiancee, "The Price Is Right" is temporarily suspending production.

A representative for the show’s producer, Fremantle, told Newsday on Tuesday that the company has "confirmed that tapings have been postponed this week." The CBS program is recorded months in advance, so no interruption is expected in its broadcast schedule.

Family and sex therapist Amie Harwick, who was briefly engaged to comedian and stand-up comic Carey in 2018, died Saturday at age 38 after falling three stories from her apartment balcony in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Police that day, citing surveillance video and signs of a struggle according to local reports, arrested an ex-boyfriend, 41-year-old photographer Gareth Pursehouse, on suspicion of murder. He remained in jail in lieu of $2 million bail and was due in court Wednesday. The Hollywood Reporter said that according to the LAPD, a restraining order Harwick had filed against Pursehouse had expired.

Carey's representative had confirmed to "Today" in January 2018 that Harwick and Carey had become engaged on an unspecified date. Their relationship ended later that year. Carey, 61, on Monday tweeted a two-second video of himself and Harwick, writing, "I hope you're lucky enough to have someone in your life that loves as much as she did.” Ryan Stiles, who co-starred on Carey's 1995-2004 ABC sitcom "The Drew Carey Show" and on the 1998-2007 edition of the Carey-hosted improv sketch show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?," commented with a heart emoji.

Harwick was a well-known therapist in private practice in West Hollywood. She received her masters in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University and her PhD from San Francisco's since-defunct Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. The author bio in her 2014 book "The New Sex Bible for Women," states she is "a former Playboy centerfold and model," but this could not be verified and Playboy public-relations director Teri Thomerson did not respond to a Newsday request for comment.

A Change.org petition titled "Justice 4 Amie," seeking to update laws on restraining orders, particularly in the area of expiration, had more than 18,000 signatures out of a targeted 25,000 by Tuesday evening. 

Carey had been engaged to Nicole Jaracz from 2007 to 2012.