Mike Richards is no longer the host of Jeopardy!, as has been announced this morning.
In a statement from Richards, “it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move for the show. As such, I will be stepping down as host effective immediately. As a result, we will be cancelling production today.”
“SPT will now resume the search for a permanent syndicated host. In the meantime, we will be bringing back guest hosts to continue production for the new season, details of which will be announced next week”.
This came as direct result of Claire McNear’s excellent exposé over at The Ringer, in which excerpts from Richards’ old podcast, The Randumb Show, resurfaced, in which Richards made remarks disparaging remarks regarding Jews, women & Asians.
According to my sources, one weeks’ worth of episodes have been taped at this point, and are scheduled to air September 13-17.
Editorially: Here at The Jeopardy! Fan, I am pleased that this partial step has been taken. However, I am still very much worried about Richards’ ability to continue in his role as Executive Producer. Many people, after feeling jilted about losing the host role that he so dearly coveted, might not feel as compelled to work as hard as they otherwise would (and I would say that I do not trust him not to sabotage the show itself.)
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Would be good FJ tidbit.
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I’m late to the party on this, but I think axing Richards was the right move for the reasons others have outlined. It’s notable that no one has really been defending him aside from the occasional anti-“cancel culture” crusader (an interesting breed).
Of the remaining supposed finalists, I’d be happy with Ken, disappointed with Bialik or Buzzy. But I’d still continue to watch, of course. I think Faber was comfortably the best guest host and I’m surprised he’s not getting more of a look.
Joe Buck was a relatively amusing distraction, but I was surprised to see so many fans come out in favour of him.
It found it amusing that Joe Buck brought the show to ratings not seen since Bill Whitaker hosted. On top of him turning out to be surprisingly good, Matt Amodio got people watching again even in the face of Mike Richards’ controversy.
On the other hand, ratings have been skewed to prove a warped point of view. Before Mike got sacked, I’ve seen people argue that it made sense for him to host just because he drew good numbers. The problem is he inherited a strong viewership from Ken Jennings’ six-week stint. We’ll have to see what the numbers from Mike’s sole week in Season 38 have to say about that.
Ken Jennings for sure. So many comments already supporting this. Almost every other guest host responded to the contestant interview anecdotes with “That’s great”. Jennings at last made a quip or insight that related to the contestant’s anecdote. Ple-e-e-ase, KEN JENNINGS!
typo… at least, not “at last”.