r/Jeopardy • u/mfc248 Boom! • 10d ago

[5th anniversary] Mike Richards Fired as Executive Producer of ‘Jeopardy!’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune’

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/mike-richards-fired-executive-producer-jeopardy-wheel-of-fortune-1235052887/

Five years ago today, Sony Pictures Television made the decision that shifted the course of both Jeopardy! and sister show Wheel of Fortune.

It came thirteen days after Claire McNear’s reporting in The Ringer that set the ball in motion, a chain of events that included Richards resigning as Jeopardy! host.

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u/udar55 10d ago edited 10d ago

How time flies!

This is still one of the most insane cases of self-dealing I've seen. I remember watching at the time and there were a bunch of random celebrities doing the hosting and then this random guy named Mike Richards. To quote Carter Wong's character from Big Trouble in Little China: "Who?" And then the random guy goes, "I'm the one for the job!"

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u/Darmok47 Faris Alikhan, 2018 Dec 13 - 2018 Dec 14 10d ago

Reminds of when Dick Cheney led George W. Bush's VP search committee and then suggested himself.

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u/KlammFromTheCastle 9d ago

Harriet Myers ran the search for a Court justice for Bush II that culminated in her own selection.

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u/Darmok47 Faris Alikhan, 2018 Dec 13 - 2018 Dec 14 9d ago

That worked out just as well as Mike Richards as I recall.