‘Jeopardy!’ Fans React to Mike Richards as Host: “Somehow So Smarmy”

Jeopardy! fans are not out of the woods yet. Even though former EP Mike Richards has stepped down from his role as permanent host of the game show and even exited as EP on both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, he’s still serving as host of the venerable quiz show this week. Audiences were unsurprisingly upset to see the ex-host when they lit up their TV screens to watch the Season 38 premiere of Jeopardy! last night (Sept. 13).

The news of Richards’ exit came after a series of resurfaced comments, lawsuits, and further allegations came to light following the announcement that he’d replace Alex Trebek as the host of Jeopardy!. The first story followed a handful of lawsuits that came out of his time as a producer on The Price is Right, alleging harassment and discrimination. The next was about his 2013 podcast, which featured a bevy of controversial comments made about women’s bodies, Jewish people, and the disabled community.

“It pains me that these past incidents and comments have cast such a shadow on Jeopardy!as we look to start a new chapter,” Richards said in his exiting statement. “As I mentioned last week, I was deeply honored to be asked to host the syndicated show and was thrilled by the opportunity to expand my role. However, over the last several days it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move for the show. As such, I will be stepping down as host effective immediately. As a result, we will be canceling production today.”

But Richards exited one day into his stint as Jeopardy! host, and one day of production on the game show results in five episodes — a whole week of the show on ABC. That means that audiences have to sit through Richards this entire week, and folks were displeased while watching him begin last night. “Yeah, this is going to be a long week with Mike Richards hosting,” one Twitter user wrote. “That was one enormous and pervasive elephant in the room.”

But some folks actually didn’t mind Richards at host — in fact, most of the Jeopardy! fans were actually alright with his technique. They just couldn’t get over his controversies. “It’s not that bad. I could’ve gotten used to watching Mike Richards,” one audience member wrote on Twitter. “Shame he’s an asshole. Would’ve made a great Wheel of Fortune host in a few years.”

On the flip side, many folks tuned in for the Season 38 premiere for another major reason: returning champ Matt Amodio took to the stage to continue his winning streak into day 19. “I LOVE watching Matt play. He’s incredible!” one viewer tweeted. “And yes I had to hold down the vomit brought on by Mike Richards but it was worth it.”

Jeopardy airs weeknights on ABC at 7/6c.

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