REPORT: Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik to split hosting duties

[Ironhorse]

Bear in mind that we here are in the strong minority of Jeopardy viewers. The same cannot be said for most of Burton's supporters, because they're not viewers to begin with.

[Xu Donym]

In the meantime, however, my hopes are especially with Team Miriam and I would be thrilled to see her become the credible-smarty conscience and exemplar of the show.

Better-known as Mayim ...

Thanks for the thoughtful post! I trust you'll be similarly gracious the next time someone calls out one of your brain-farts! Best wishes to you!

[Bamaman]

Bob Barker did a lot worse than Richards is accused of at TPIR and he didn’t suffer much in the public eye.

[The Talking Mime]

So the new host is a person who wasn't in the top tier of a lot of people's rankings and seems an ill fit compared to other possible names and another guest host will preside over an unnecessary primetime version? Yeesh, this is a lot to take in for one day.

I didn't rank Richards highly myself and he doesn't have that air of intellectualism that Alex had and Ken possesses, but like others have said already, Alex wasn't exactly the dean of trivia when he started out. I'm more than willing to give Richards a chance, and hopefully he recognizes the weight of the job and makes an effort to grow into the job and become a more adept and venerable host without affecting the game's integrity. But I'd be lying if I said I was optimistic about the new developments.

I won't mind seeing more of Mayim, but I don't see the point in having primetime tournaments. I doubt anything will reach the prestige and ratings of the GOAT tournament.

[goongas]

Bob Barker did a lot worse than Richards is accused of at TPIR and he didn’t suffer much in the public eye.

I thought the same thing when I read about the lawsuits.

[goongas]

So the new host is a person who wasn't in the top tier of a lot of people's rankings and seems an ill fit compared to other possible names and another guest host will preside over an unnecessary primetime version? Yeesh, this is a lot to take in for one day.

I didn't rank Richards highly myself and he doesn't have that air of intellectualism that Alex had and Ken possesses, but like others have said already, Alex wasn't exactly the dean of trivia when he started out. I'm more than willing to give Richards a chance, and hopefully he recognizes the weight of the job and makes an effort to grow into the job and become a more adept and venerable host without affecting the game's integrity. But I'd be lying if I said I was optimistic about the new developments.

I won't mind seeing more of Mayim, but I don't see the point in having primetime tournaments. I doubt anything will reach the prestige and ratings of the GOAT tournament.

Primetime J! is inexpensive to produce, and will probably get decent ratings, so they will try it again.

[squarekara]

TMZ: 'Jeopardy!' Champ Austin Rogers Critical of New Host Mike Richards.
https://www.tmz.com/2021/08/11/jeopardy ... new-hosts/

[zakharov]

Bob Barker did a lot worse than Richards is accused of at TPIR and he didn’t suffer much in the public eye.

It's a cliche, but it really was a different time and he retired at the "right time" to avoid blowback. He would deservedly catch much more heat if it were happening in this decade.

Richards isn't the worst choice, that would be if Dr. Oz somehow got the job. But he is the lamest, and no matter how many denials he issues he'll never shake the stink of having rigged the process for himself. I'd be much less cranky about this if they'd just announced him early on prior to the guest host carousel/audition but not an audition.

There were definitely several guest hosts who thought they were being considered for the permanent gig (Burton, Rodgers, Jennings, Faber, others?). It's really unfair if they didn't actually have a shot.

[squarekara]

Richards isn't the worst choice, that would be if Dr. Oz somehow got the job. But he is the lamest, and no matter how many denials he issues he'll never shake the stink of having rigged the process for himself. I'd be much less cranky about this if they'd just announced him early on prior to the guest host carousel/audition but not an audition.
There were definitely several guest hosts who thought they were being considered for the permanent gig (Burton, Rodgers, Jennings, Faber, others?). It's really unfair if they didn't actually have a shot.

Richards did fine, but other candidates did better. He claims that the ultimate selection "wasn't his choice," but the fact remains that he actively coached the opposition and reported back to Sony about them. And, sorry, but only a Machiavellian EP could've allowed LeVar's shows to air as they did.

[Robert K S]

the fact remains that he actively coached the opposition and reported back to Sony about them.

So much this.

[This Is Kirk!]

Who knows? maybe the J! staff is excited that someone from "the inside" was selected.

[Robert K S]

I understand we will be getting some reporting on that soon.

Is there anyone on this board who really believes Richards hosting Jeopardy! is not primarily an accident of timing? That if Pat Sajak had died/retired before Alex, Richards would not instead be the new host of Wheel of Fortune?

[Xu Donym]

I understand we will be getting some reporting on that soon.

Is there anyone on this board who really believes Richards hosting Jeopardy! is not primarily an accident of timing? That if Pat Sajak had died/retired before Alex, Richards would not instead be the new host of Wheel of Fortune?

...and probably a perfectly decent host, as Wheel of Fortune makes very different demands of its hosts. But if Vanna White died, I don't think we'd have seen Mike Richards -- nor Mayim Bialik, Katie Couric, Savannah Guthrie, or Robin Roberts -- appearing as guest letter-presenters. But if it ever comes to that, based on what we've seen, maybe Joe Buck or LeVar Burton might have a decent shot at credibly replacing Vanna.

[cinemaniax7]

‘Jeopardy!’ Mega-Champ James Holzhauer Roasted The Hell Out Of The Show’s Host Fiasco

[Leander]

Richards did fine, but other candidates did better. He claims that the ultimate selection "wasn't his choice," but the fact remains that he actively coached the opposition and reported back to Sony about them. And, sorry, but only a Machiavellian EP could've allowed LeVar's shows to air as they did.

Playing a bit of devil’s advocate:

Despite Mike’s nefarious role in coaching, I’d be hard pressed to say any of the guest hosts did a poor job, except Burton.

If Burton did as poor a job on set as people who claim to have been at the taping say he did, with reshoots going late into the evening, I’m not sure what we would expect the show to do. Spread out his tapings to additional days to fix his errors?

While other people did a better job, it’s not clear how many would have been willing to give up their day jobs for the show, and I suspect there’s some accuracy in the idea to keep the focus on the contestants rather than a “name” host (although I don’t consider Ken or Buzzy to be in that category).

[Xu Donym]

If Burton did as poor a job on set as people who claim to have been at the taping say he did, with reshoots going late into the evening, I’m not sure what we would expect the show to do. Spread out his tapings to additional days to fix his errors?

And that's the problem. We don't know how much worse Burton did than any of the others. A lot of fixing happens not on the set but in post-production. It's entirely possible that J! video editors stayed at work late editing other hosts' programs, but Richards told them not to spend extra effort on the Burton post-production process. I'm not saying that's what happened; I'm simply saying that we'll never know. Which means that the selection was compromised from the start by a conflict of interest.

[davey]

the fact remains that he actively coached the opposition and reported back to Sony about them.

So much this.

Too bad his oppositional coaching didn't work for Mayim Bialik...He could have had the whole thing to himself!

[Xu Donym]

Too bad his oppositional coaching didn't work for Mayim Bialik...

It almost did. "Mayim, we need you to be a little bit more chatty. Oh, and what are your academic credentials? Don't let us forget!"

[davey]

In the meantime, however, my hopes are especially with Team Miriam Mayim and I would be thrilled to see her become the credible-smarty conscience and exemplar of the show.

As long as she still has time to hawk her patent medicine!
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/class-act ... objections

[Leander]

If Burton did as poor a job on set as people who claim to have been at the taping say he did, with reshoots going late into the evening, I’m not sure what we would expect the show to do. Spread out his tapings to additional days to fix his errors?

And that's the problem. We don't know how much worse Burton did than any of the others. A lot of fixing happens not on the set but in post-production. It's entirely possible that J! video editors stayed at work late editing other hosts' programs, but Richards told them not to spend extra effort on the Burton post-production process. I'm not saying that's what happened; I'm simply saying that we'll never know. Which means that the selection was compromised from the start by a conflict of interest.

I would grant you there could be a point at which Richards says to himself,”Burton is never going to be host anyway, he’s done terrible in taping, we’ve spent hours fixing his errors, but there is huge social media pressure from his fans to name him host. We won’t go to extraordinary measures to fix all the problems and let a few leak out to let them see how poorly he did”

But Burton is an unusual case amongst the guest hosts with his huge fan base. Plus you could never fix his overall on air manner of clue readings.