Mike Richards Opens Up About Being Booted From Hosting ‘Jeopardy!’: “A Lot Of People Got Joy In Saying, ‘I Got You’”

Former Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards is opening up about losing out on hosting the show after only a single day in the role.

In an interview with People, he reflected on his few seconds of fame, claiming that “no one was more surprised than [him]” when he received the job to host with Mayim Bialik after testing out a slew of guests as replacements for the late Alex Trebek, per Entertainment Weekly.

“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?’” he recalled. “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.”

He noted that “everyone was so angry because it looked like [he] had gone into a room and picked [him]self.”

“And that’s not what happens in television, but I understood that that’s what the outward appearances were,” he added.

After he “hosted one day,” an investigative report from The Ringer uncovered derogatory comments he previously made on his The Randumb Show podcast between 2013 and 2014 about women, Jewish people, and individuals with mental disabilities. Said report then led to the Anti-Defamation League launching their own investigation.

After stepping down as host, Richards also was booted from his EP positions on Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, and even more came to light surrounding his “tumultuous” tenure as a producer on The Price is Right.

Photo: Jeopardy

“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,” Richards said. “It was insinuated that I had been personally sued for sexual harassment. I never had, but that didn’t matter.” People reported that he was “ultimately dropped from the suit.”

With respect to the backlash he received, Richards claimed that a lot of buzz about him was not completely correct or not properly contextualized.

“But by then everyone was like, ‘Oh he’s just a horrible person,’” he said. “It was the price you pay for getting thrust into the zeitgeist in a very inopportune moment.”

While he “did spend a lot of time reflecting on everything that had happened” — describing “quite a firestorm that engulfed [his] family” — Richards said he opted to talk about his experience now because he “feel[s] like [he] can be a force for good as far as having open, honest conversations.”

“We can all disagree about a lot of things,” he elaborated. “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.’”

Nonetheless, Richards “always thought Ken [Jennings] was the guy” for the job, and is even pitching game show ideas.

“If I pitched a show and someone asked, ‘Would you be you hosting it?’ I say, only if you think I’m the right man for the job,” he told People. “I don’t care if you have someone else in mind.”