Drew Carey to Get New Best Friend

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday July 31, 2002 12:00 PM EDT

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Drew Carey is getting a new costar. The Hollywood Reporter reports that "Titus" star Cynthia Watros will play the new female lead on the 8-year-old "The Drew Carey Show" when regular Christa Miller leaves the series after the second episode this fall. The blue-eyed blonde, 33, who also won a Daytime Emmy for her leading role as Annie Dutton on "The Guiding Light" in the mid-'90s, will play Alison, who has had a crush on Carey's character ever since the two of them were in high school together. Now divorced and jobless, she turns for help to Carey, who arranges for her to work as a waitress at the Warsaw Bar, says the trade publication. "Drew's relationship with Alison is like being each other's gay best friend . . . though neither party is gay -- not that there's anything wrong with that," Carey, 44, told the Reporter. Among other changes in store for the sitcom is a new timeslot, ABC has already announced. It will move to a new time slot, 8 p.m. on Monday, as of the season premiere on Sept. 9. And in other TV news, ABC is creating a behind-the-scenes special about its hit reality dating series, "The Bachelor," to run on sister network ABC Family next month, says the Reporter. The six-part miniseries, titled "The Bachelor: Special Edition," will run at 9 p.m. ET Aug. 11-16 and will be emceed by "Bachelor" star Alex Michel.