“A Smile With Sharp Teeth”: Mike Richards’s Rise to ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Sparks Questions About His Past
The ‘Jeopardy!’ host search is finally over. New reporting reveals that concerns about Richards and the show’s selection process remain.
Update, August 20: Mike Richards has stepped down as the host of Jeopardy! According to a statement provided by Sony, the studio “will now resume the search for a permanent syndicated host.”
At the time, Jennings was nearly a decade removed from the 74-game Jeopardy! winning streak that had made him a household name. Richards, meanwhile, was backstage at The Price Is Right, the show he had joined as a co–executive producer five years earlier, and where that May he had launched a podcast called The Randumb Show, which was promoted to listeners as a look behind the scenes at Price.
Before he called Jennings to record a segment on the podcast, Richards put a question to his cohost. “Are you good at trivia?” he asked.
“See, what I am is horrible at all trivia,” Richards said. “It doesn’t even matter if it’s a specific area I should know. I don’t have that kind of mind.” Later in the episode, after Jennings joined, Richards went further: “If I had gotten on Jeopardy!—well, I never would have gotten on Jeopardy!, let’s be square,” he said.
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