Mike Richards is reflecting on his brief stint as Jeopardy! host.
In August 2021, Richards was promoted from his role as the game show's executive producer to fill in the vacant spot left behind by longtime host Alex Trebek, who died from pancreatic cancer nine months earlier. However, after hosting just one episode, Richards stepped down from the podium amid controversy over sexist remarks he made earlier in his career. Though Richards apologized for the insensitive comments at the time, he ultimately parted ways with the show.
Now, more than two years later, Richards spoke out about his public firing, saying that it "was the price you pay for getting thrust into the zeitgeist in a very inopportune moment."
"Why I am talking now is that I feel like I can be a force for good as far as having open, honest conversations," he told People in an interview published March 20. "We can all disagree about a lot of things. 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.'"
Richards—who previously hosted Beauty & the Geek, Million Dollar Pyramid and Divided—also shut down speculation that he had promoted himself. Instead, he had always assumed current host Ken Jennings would be Trebek's successor.
So, when other show executives threw his hat in the ring—along with guest hosts such as Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers and Robin Roberts—as the permanent emcee, Richards said, "No one was more surprised than me."
"They told me, 'We'd like you to be the host of the syndicated version of Jeopardy!'" he recalled. "I paused, and said, 'Oh wow. Thank you. What's the media plan?' 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."
Looking back, Richards understood that "it looked like I had gone into a room and picked myself."
"And that's not what happens in television," he clarified, "but I understood that that's what the outward appearances were."
So, what does he think of Jennings at the podium? As Richards put it, "I always thought Ken was the guy."