his buttocks. Cast Carey admitted that he did not feel much pressure about the live episode because he was used to performing in front of live audiences during his stand-up career. He also had experience with improvisational comedy from his time hosting Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Similarly, Ryan Stiles was also a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and he and Kathy Kinney had performed live improv for over 20 years. Kinney thought they were the "least daunted" by the episode. As Miller and Diedrich Bader were not improv comics and more likely to struggle, Stiles told Susan King from the Los Angeles Times that he was on "damage control" during filming. Joining the cast for "Drew Live" were several Whose Line regulars. Colin Mochrie reprised his role as Eugene from the previous season of The Drew Carey Show. Mochrie's agent stated that he and Carey would "test the limits of live TV" during the live episode. Brad Sherwood acted as the host and introduced the improv scenarios, while Wayne Brady and musician Laura Hall appeared during the various improv moments of the episode. Italian quick change artist Arturo Brachetti made a guest appearance. Reception In its original broadcast, "Drew Live" was watched by 19.1 million viewers and finished 10th in the ratings for the week of November 8–14, 1999. It was the third highest-rated show on ABC that week, following episodes of Monday Night Football and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The episode also achieved the show's biggest audience in 44 weeks. "Drew Live" received mixed reviews from critics. Bill Brioux, writing for Canoe.ca, thought that the live episode was "a high-wire act that few other shows could even contemplate." He went on to call the cast "fearless" and believed that they were more likely to pull the episode off successfully compared to cast members from other television shows. David Bianculli of the Daily News also enjoyed the episode, giving it three and a half stars out of five. He branded the episode "a hoot", and observed that Carey, Bader, Stiles, Sherwood and Mochrie handled the live element the best. He also said that Cohen had "captured the action perfectly", which was "a rather amazing achievement, considering how freewheeling much of it was".The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert was not a fan of the episode, calling it "gimmicky", "a smug mess", and a "not-too-subtle" promotion for Whose