Remember Mike Richards? He was the relatively obscure Jeopardy! executive producer who gave himself the job of permanent host then stepped down after numerous scandals. Technically he only lasted one day on the job. But in that time he managed to bang an entire week’s worth of episodes.
In a New York Times piece Friday (in a bit teased out by Entertainment Weekly), on Thursday Richards kicked off the show’s 38th season, which didn’t go as smoothly as one would hope. Two sources claimed that “frustrations erupted in an emotional meeting on Thursday, where crew members told Mr. Richards his past behavior had imperiled the show’s reputation.” The next day, Richards formally resigned.
But they were still apparently productive. The five episodes with Richards as the not-so-permanent host will air on the week of September 13. What will happen after that is still unknown, though the spin-off show hosted by Mayim Bialik is still ready to go. Of course, a lot of people have very big opinions about who should host instead. Maybe the highers-up have noticed that LeVar Burton, one of the many guest hosts the show has had in the last several months, is just a tiny bit popular.
