By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 31, 2021 |
By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 31, 2021 |
Sony TV probably thought that if they yanked Mike Richards from the hosting job, offered him some sensitivity training, and kept their heads down that Richards could quietly return to the executive producer position of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune and we’d all just leave it alone.
They were wrong. Never underestimate our ability to ceaselessly make noise. The same problems that made Richards the wrong choice as host of Jeopardy! also made him an unwise choice as Executive Producer. Everyone else understood it. But it took Sony TV another couple of weeks to come around to what was obvious to the rest of us and fire Mike Richards.
This, from a memo sent to staff by Suzanne Prete, EVP, Business and Strategy, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!
I’m writing to let you know that Mike will no longer be serving as EP of Wheel and Jeopardy! effective immediately. We had hoped that when Mike stepped down from the host position at Jeopardy! it would have minimized the disruption and internal difficulties we have all experienced these last few weeks. That clearly has not happened.
And that’s all she wrote. Mike Richards finally proved to be more trouble than he was worth. That’s the end of a very short era.
Source: Variety