Former “Jeopardy!” producer Mike Richards, who reportedly hosted the show for one day before being fired, is speaking publicly about the experience for the first time.
The 48-year-old game show producer was chosen as the replacement for longtime host Alex Trebek following his death from cancer in 2020. Richards was named the new host in August 2021, but his tenure was short-lived following a media firestorm related to his controversial comments that resurfaced online.
“Jeopardy!” execs didn’t replace Trebek right away, opting instead to try out guest hosts for several months before landing on a replacement. “I actually thought we should just name a new host,” Richards told People of that decision. “But when Alex passed away, it was hard on everyone.”
The producer reflected on some of those guest hosts, including Katie Couric, Mayim Bialik, Robin Roberts, and Aaron Rodgers.
He recalls being surprised to land the job. “No one was more surprised than me,” he told the outlet. “They told me, ‘We’d like you to be the host of the syndicated version of Jeopardy!’ I paused, and said, ‘Oh wow. Thank you. What’s the media plan?’ Because I was very concerned that this was going to be scrutinized as closely as a Presidential election. There was widespread belief that whoever got the job first wouldn’t make it.”
Richards said those assumptions were correct, and fans weren’t pleased with the choice. “Everyone was so angry because it looked like I had gone into a room and picked myself,” he said. “And that’s not what happens in television, but I understood that that’s what the outward appearances were.”
The game show producer recalled hosting for just one day. An article published on Ringer.com highlighted some controversial comments in 2013 and 2014 while hosting the podcast “Randumb,” as The Daily Wire previously reported. During that time, he referred to his female co-host as a “booth ho,” “boothstitute,” and “booth slut” and said women in one-piece bathing suits look “really frumpy and overweight.”
He also made remarks about another woman’s appearance, saying of her facial features, “Ixnay on the ose-nay. She’s not an ew-Jay.”
Richards made a public apology for the statements after the article was published. “It is humbling to confront a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago. Looking back now, there is no excuse, of course, for the comments I made on this podcast and I am deeply sorry,” he said at the time.
Besides the statements, outlets began reporting that Richards was involved in a wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuit while working at “The Price is Right.”
“I told them, I’ll answer anything. I’m an open book, proud of what I’ve done. I’m proud of my track record as a boss,” he told People of all the negative press. “It was insinuated that I had been personally sued for sexual harassment. I never had, but that didn’t matter.” Richards’ name was later dropped from the lawsuit, but after so much drama and coupled with the division over pandemic-related issues, he started getting a lot of hate online.
“By then everyone was like, ‘Oh he’s just a horrible person,’” Richards said. “It was the price you pay for getting thrust into the zeitgeist in a very inopportune moment.”
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It led to Richards publicly resigning after his very short hosting stint (some outlets still say he was fired). Eventually, popular contestant Ken Jennings became the permanent host, which Richards said was a good move.
“Why I am talking now is that I feel like I can be a force for good as far as having open, honest conversations,” he told People. “We can all disagree about a lot of things. We can disagree about politics, we can disagree about who hosts Jeopardy!. We can disagree about liking a final Jeopardy! clue. And we should. But I felt like there was a this rush to judgment, and a lot of people got joy in saying, ‘I got you.'”
“I always thought Ken [Jennings] was the guy,” he added.