Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Article content
You can definitely count former Jeopardy! champion James Holzhauer among those who are happy that the show’s executive producer Mike Richards has been fired.
Advertisement
Article content
After Richards was dropped for past offensive comments, Holzhauer, who went on a 32-game winning streak in 2019, took a swipe at his unceremonious departure.
“Do I think Mike Richards’ podcast comments were appropriate for polite society? No,” Holzhauer tweeted. “But did he deserve the benefit of the doubt for the job he did running Jeopardy!? Also no.”
Advertisement
Article content
Holzhauer also shared a GIF from The Wizard of Oz with the words, “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!”
Advertisement
Article content
His dislike of Richards was clearly personal as he added in a follow-up post, “Some judged Mike Richards solely on his podcast comments and formed a negative opinion, but I judged him by the way he treated people backstage at Jeopardy! and formed a much stronger negative opinion.”
Advertisement
Article content
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Richards’ tenure at his previous game show, The Price is Right, was mired in controversy behind the scenes after longtime host Bob Barker ended his 35-year run in June 2007.
“He’s one of the reasons I left,” Claire Sawidziak, who worked as a staging supervisor on Price from 2011 to 2015, said.
Richards, who was selected to front Jeopardy! after a months-long search to replace the late Alex Trebek, was dumped as the program’s new host last month after new details emerged about sexist remarks he made as host on a podcast called The Randumb Show several years ago.
According to a review of all 41 episodes of The Randumb Show by The Ringer’s Claire McNear, it was found that Richards frequently made remarks about women and their bodies, as well as disparaging comments about Jewish people and the poor.
Advertisement
Article content
After announcing he was stepping aside, Sony Pictures TV maintained that Richards would stay on as executive producer.
But Tuesday, Suzanne Prete, executive vice president for business and strategy for both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, which Richards also produces, announced the TV veteran would be relieved of his duties.
“We had hoped that when Mike stepped down from the host position at Jeopardy! it would have minimized the disruption and internal difficulties we have all experienced these last few weeks,” Prete said. “That clearly has not happened.”
In a statement to The Ringer, Richards maintained that his comments on the podcast were “intended to be a series of irreverent conversations between longtime friends who had a history of joking around.”
Advertisement
Article content
He added he was “deeply sorry” in follow-up remarks to Fox News.
“It is humbling to confront a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgement, 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.”
But Richards’ selection to take over from the beloved Trebek was a point of contention even before the sexist podcast clips were unearthed. According to the New York Times, Richards, who had long dreamed of hosting his own game show, was instrumental in choosing which appearances by each prospective host was screened for focus groups.
Former Jeopardy! champ James Holzhauer cheers Mike Richards' firing: 'THE WITCH IS DEAD!' - Toronto Sun
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment