Only two weeks after stepping down as host of Jeopardy, Mike Richards has resigned from his executive producer role on the show as well as another Sony production, Wheel of Fortune.
Since becoming the executive producer of both Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, Richards has garnered a significant amount of controversy. In large part due to his racist and sexist comments on his 2013-2014 podcast, Richards received huge backlash when he stepped up to be the host of Jeopardy following the untimely death of Alex Trebek in 2020.
Richards’ comments on The Randumb Show were reported to be extremely crude and distasteful. Specifically, he made disturbing comments about women’s bodies, anti-Semitic remarks and displayed distaste for homeless people. Richards was involved in allegations of mistreatment while he was part of the male leadership at The Price is Right. Allegations include comments admitting that he would have discriminated against women on the basis of pregnancy and fostering an unsafe work environment for models.
Richards released a statement to the Jeopardy team apologizing for his actions. He insisted that “the way in which my comments and actions have been characterized in these complaints does not reflect the reality of who I am or how we worked together on The Price is Right.”
Concerns were also raised about the conflict of interest where Richards stepped in to host Jeopardy. As an executive producer, he may have had an unfair hand in choosing a replacement for the late Trebek.
Watchers of the beloved show were outraged with the selection and the drop of a takedown by Claire McNear of The Ringer seemed to be the last straw for Richards. Sony has officially severed ties with Richards, although he had already taped a few episodes in his short stint as host. Though these episodes may air, Richards will not be involved in either Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy in the future.
