Mayim Bialik to guest host ‘Jeopardy!’ after Mike Richards’ messy exit
The “Jeopardy!” shuffle continues: Mayim Bialik will serve as guest host of the syndicated TV program when production resumes this week.
“Jeopardy!” producer Sony Pictures Television announced Monday that the “Big Bang Theory” actor will temporarily fill in as emcee of the hit quiz show for three weeks after executive producer Mike Richards recently stepped down as newly appointed host.
Bialik was previously named host of “Jeopardy!” prime-time specials and spinoffs, while Richards was supposed to helm nightly episodes.
Upcoming installments will see Bialik take the famed studio lectern — with subsequent guest hosts to be announced — as the search for a permanent successor for the late Alex Trebek drags on.
‘Jeopardy!’ will return to a guest-host format and search anew for a full-time host as Mike Richards steps down. He will remain as executive producer.
Bialik’s guest-host appointment comes days after Richards exited his brand-new post following a cascade of scandals. Shortly before his departure, Richards apologized for making several sexist remarks on “The Randumb Show,” a podcast he cohosted from 2013 to 2014.
“It is humbling to confront a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago,” Richards said in a statement to the Ringer, which reviewed all 41 episodes of the podcast before they were scrubbed from the internet.
“Looking back now, there is no excuse, of course, for the comments I made on this podcast and I am deeply sorry.”
‘My attempts to be funny and provocative were not acceptable,’ ‘Jeopardy!’ host Mike Richards said about sexist comments he made on his old podcast.
By the time he addressed the podcast controversy, Richards was already on thin ice with viewers: In the days leading up to his casting, lawsuits alleging wrongful termination, gender-based harassment and retaliation filed by former female employees on “The Price Is Right,”
where he was an executive producer from 2008 to 2018, came back to haunt him.
Despite Sony’s controversial decision to hire him anyway — initially — Richards ultimately quit the hosting gig after his podcast commentary resurfaced. As of Monday, Richards was still an executive producer on “Jeopardy!”
Prior to his withdrawal, Richards filmed five installments as host of “Jeopardy!” all of which are scheduled to air as planned.
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