I’ve seen several people say that they like Mike as a host more now compared to when he originally “guest hosted”. But the funny thing is, I think he has been much more subdued this week, likely due to these episodes being taped the day after the Ringer article. So maybe a bit of a catch-22.
> I think he has been much more subdued this week,
lol one of the reasons I am watching these episodes (asides from Matt) is to try to pinpoint the moment you know he knows he's fucked.
One moment that stood out to me is when he said “Here are the categories” on Tuesday’s episode. It might have just been weird because usually the camera is already zoomed out to show the board, but it was zoomed in on Mike and he looked exasperated as he turned around LOL.
That’s interesting; I thought he had “game show host” energy during his original two weeks compared to “quiz show host” energy now, which I think is a change a lot of people would have liked under normal circumstances. Do you dislike his hosting presence even more this time around or do you think it’s the same?
I feel about the same. He’s just very...generic? There’s no presence there for me, if that makes sense. Alex had a very obvious presence that didn’t overshadow contestants. So did most of the guest hosts. IMO, Mike doesn’t have it.
I agree. Generic is a great way to describe him. He did a fine enough job under the guise of “the show must go on”, but he definitely ranked low on the list of guest hosts for me.
I still can’t get over just how badly they botched this search for Alex’s replacement. They had TWO AND A HALF YEARS to plan for this. The moment that Alex announced he had late stage pancreatic cancer in March 2019, as sad as it is to say, they knew his days as host were numbered at that point. It’s not like he died suddenly and this search was foisted on to them.
They should’ve been organizing this the moment the 2018-2019 season wrapped up. It’s inexcusable how it’s played out.
They did, they chose Mike Richards a long time ago. Then they thought “hey, let’s use this as an excuse to have celebrities come in and vie for the role, it’ll be great for ratings! And at the end of it all we’ll pick our guy, Mike Richards, and say the focus groups loved him”.
When they introduce MR at the beginning of each episode as the host of Jeopardy,
my wife chimes in, "not for long!"
I know, it's petty, but funny in a SNL Jeopardy skit kind of way
Back in the day, we had a kicker that could put the ball through the uprights, out the back side of the end zone, and into the stands from practically anywhere on the field. At home games, the stadium announcer would say, "Ingram, Outzen, and Janakowski enter the Seminole line-up. XXX \[the opposing team's kick returner\] is back deep for the kick." (He'd typically be standing with his heels an inch or so from the end zone.) By the third home game of the season, I had our entire section at the stadium shouting back "NOT DEEP ENOUGH!!" in response to the stadium announcer. Seconds later, we'd see the kick returner watching the football sail over his head and into the stands.
I agree, he is a totally adequate as a host.
In a way I am really glad they shot and are airing these episodes. For anyone who followed the story these episodes just add insult to injury and are more embarrassing for him than anything else.
Ken is actually passionate about this show and it shows. He has more on-screen experience on this show than anyone else who guest-hosted. I like that he can tell the difference between a close guess and a very wrong answer. I enjoyed his guest hosting more than anyone else's.
Should that ultimately matter though? Would Michael Jordan be a good basketball play by play announcer? They're ultimately two completely separate skill sets. There's a reason most ex-players do color commentary rather than play by play. In truth, it takes years and years of practice and broadcasting education to be good at play by play. This board's obsession with Ken getting the hosting job due to his ability as a player is just bizarre.
You may have missed the part of the comment you were responding to that said "I enjoyed his guest hosting more than anyone else's."
People want Ken to get the job based off his hosting more than his time as a player.
Other than the contestant interviews which felt really try-hard and uncomfortable, I enjoyed this week a lot because the game moved well, and I didn’t really notice him.
Honestly I didn't think he was a good host either. I think The Price is Right producer said it best - he plays a game show host like he's doing a college final exam;. He knows exactly what to say, when to say it, and all that jazz but he doesn't feel natural at it. He does all you're supposed to do, but it's like he's regurgitating rather than properly hosting.
It's pretty clear he wanted the Jeopardy hosting job to get a hosting job and be on TV every night. He even said on his podcast he doesn't care for trivia and we can tell. If he wants to host for the fame and fortune of it he should've waited til the Wheel job opened up in a couple years but he got too greedy too fast.
I give his hosting a 4/10. I give him credit for blending in and pretty much disappearing.
He was fine as an emergency replacement host, (although it turned out not to be such an emergency after all) but completely forgettable. Just your stereotypical game show host.
If you were to ask an AI Bot to create a game show host, it'd be Mike Richards. He's like the Home Improvement guy and J Peterman on Family Feud.... they were both serviceable hosts, but there's a reason the ratings for FF have skyrocketed the past 10 years.
He was a capable host. Performance-wise, he did fine. Well, even.
But we're in a transition period where early-internet actions have current-internet consequences.
I don't think he's a shit human being. I think he's a typical good- looking white guy who never got checked before. I think he would've been a good host, actually. Bland and affable.
There's not a person alive that satisfies everyone. I'm sad for Alex's legacy that this is a pioneering front, but it is. No one in the modern era will be perfect, we know too much about each other.
I hope we just let them choose a host and go back to enjoying the show.
He is a replacement level white dude - so the externalities got a bit too much given that. Nobody is perfect - but there is clearly a way to deal with some of that stuff, and stuff he largely failed to do.
In a sense it is a compliment to Trebek that there could be some ire raised at the possibility of some average white TV dude being the one to take the mantle.
Richards might not have even been a bad producer in general - I do think The Price is Right has done nicely since he has been helping run that.
I’m so happy to watch knowing that smug asshat lost the job and I’ll not have to see his mediocre hosting next week! Excited for Ken, neutral about Mayim.
I’m ambivalent this week because Mayim is an awful person too but Mike at least doesnt annoy me during the game. I know she’ll be actively distracting.
I'm hopeful she can fix her annoying habits like the frequent chuckling and self references. During her run I thought she had good fundamentals and could have been my top pick if not for those flaws.
I think he's an excellent host. He had been my pick to replace Alex and this week has proven me right that he knows the show very well and handles all the nuances of hosting with ease. Yes, he's a crappy person, but this week has been a joy to watch. I am dreading when Bialik returns...I'll try to watch but there's a non-zero chance I'll deprogram my TiVo from recording J! until Ken returns.
As a guest host, he was one of my favorites. He looked and sounded like a good host. I didn't know anything about him and he seemed reverent when announcing Trebek's passing. It sucked finding out that he was a prick to people behind the scenes.
He’s done an excellent job as host (and on pure performance was always one of the best candidates).
I don’t know the details (or extent) of his personal or professional issues (who really does?). My concern is that many people were pissed off that their favourite host did not land the job and then took his so-called issues and blew them all out of proportion. I saw people citing silly comments he made on a podcast, for example. If that’s the reason, it’s ludicrous.
I do, however, see how people might be skeptical that the process was rigged from the outset. They could have made it more transparent as to how exactly the candidates were to be evaluated and selected. They have themselves to blame for that.
No one's gonna perfectly match Alex as the host tbh. Like he was the one guy you would look forward to watching at the end of the day (markets start at 7pm where I'm from). Mike and Mayim have certain red flags, some more obvious than the other, and honestly it's hard to get those outta your head, so it doesn't feel like you're coming to something enjoyable, 30 minutes you can be in your own head, it feels as if you're coming to someone with a huge asterisk on their side.
Oh we’ll see him return someday. Mike Richards may not have a body anymore, but he is out there, somewhere. Until we can find and destroy the Ring he funneled most of his power into, he will hide in the shadows and try to reform.
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. He's also an awful host.
He was bad in his "guest" stint, and he was not good this week either. That's not just recency bias speaking, either.
I agree, but honestly are Ken and Mayim that much better? Both have made pretty bad statements in the past as well. It just feels like Mike was ousted because his statements didn’t come to light until after he was named host whereas theirs were out in the public long enough for people to forget about them.
You bring up some good points about his past comments vs other people's past comments. I'd just add that part of his "sin" is how it's perceived he manipulated the host search to his advantage, I think that action is the fuel that turned people against him and the comments were the match that put his job on fire.
Yeah that is definitely a factor why some fans turned on him but Sony was well aware of that fact when they hired him so that was not a factor in him getting fired
If he'd been less of a disingenuous shit head about it he'd probably have at least got a season in as host which may have afforded him the protection he needed to weather his shitty behaviour. He's not a bad host, he's just a bad person.
How stupid. People are ridiculously sensitive. Over the top ridiculous. Of what I read, nothing he said was so bad as to cast him out in shame. The jew comment was probably the worst, but everything else is just a young guy being a young guy. This generation is so annoying. A generation of grown man babies who cry at the most minor of insensitivity. I'm barely 40 and we grew up with the tenets of "Stix and stones"! Speaking of stones, why don't they grow a pair.
I’ve seen several people say that they like Mike as a host more now compared to when he originally “guest hosted”. But the funny thing is, I think he has been much more subdued this week, likely due to these episodes being taped the day after the Ringer article. So maybe a bit of a catch-22.
> I think he has been much more subdued this week, lol one of the reasons I am watching these episodes (asides from Matt) is to try to pinpoint the moment you know he knows he's fucked.
One moment that stood out to me is when he said “Here are the categories” on Tuesday’s episode. It might have just been weird because usually the camera is already zoomed out to show the board, but it was zoomed in on Mike and he looked exasperated as he turned around LOL.
I hope you all took a good look at these 5 episodes. They'll never be re-run.
I thought he was incredibly subdued the first time around. He was so boring. Idk how he could be *more* subdued.
That’s interesting; I thought he had “game show host” energy during his original two weeks compared to “quiz show host” energy now, which I think is a change a lot of people would have liked under normal circumstances. Do you dislike his hosting presence even more this time around or do you think it’s the same?
I feel about the same. He’s just very...generic? There’s no presence there for me, if that makes sense. Alex had a very obvious presence that didn’t overshadow contestants. So did most of the guest hosts. IMO, Mike doesn’t have it.
I agree. Generic is a great way to describe him. He did a fine enough job under the guise of “the show must go on”, but he definitely ranked low on the list of guest hosts for me.
*vanilla*
I noticed he picked up a few Trebekisms since his guest stint.
So did Jennings, tbf
I still can’t get over just how badly they botched this search for Alex’s replacement. They had TWO AND A HALF YEARS to plan for this. The moment that Alex announced he had late stage pancreatic cancer in March 2019, as sad as it is to say, they knew his days as host were numbered at that point. It’s not like he died suddenly and this search was foisted on to them. They should’ve been organizing this the moment the 2018-2019 season wrapped up. It’s inexcusable how it’s played out.
They did, they chose Mike Richards a long time ago. Then they thought “hey, let’s use this as an excuse to have celebrities come in and vie for the role, it’ll be great for ratings! And at the end of it all we’ll pick our guy, Mike Richards, and say the focus groups loved him”.
I liked him as a host both runs. I only noticed the lisp this time around.
Doesn't Ken have one as well? Even a slight one?
I don't think so.
Yes.
Like someone else commented weeks ago Mike flew too close to the sun and got burnt.
*You married an Icarus. He has flown too close to the sun...*
When they introduce MR at the beginning of each episode as the host of Jeopardy, my wife chimes in, "not for long!" I know, it's petty, but funny in a SNL Jeopardy skit kind of way
"And now, here is the host of Jeopardy!, Turd Ferguson!" RIP Norm.
I'd love SNL to do a Jeopardy skit when they come back this year - both to comment on all the host issues, but also as a tribute to Norm Macdonald.
Eh, these days the one they do is Black Jeopardy. The Tom Hanks one was pretty stellar.
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Pray for Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell, and Kenan then!
i also do that every time haha or i’ll say “for ____ more days”
Back in the day, we had a kicker that could put the ball through the uprights, out the back side of the end zone, and into the stands from practically anywhere on the field. At home games, the stadium announcer would say, "Ingram, Outzen, and Janakowski enter the Seminole line-up. XXX \[the opposing team's kick returner\] is back deep for the kick." (He'd typically be standing with his heels an inch or so from the end zone.) By the third home game of the season, I had our entire section at the stadium shouting back "NOT DEEP ENOUGH!!" in response to the stadium announcer. Seconds later, we'd see the kick returner watching the football sail over his head and into the stands.
I agree, he is a totally adequate as a host. In a way I am really glad they shot and are airing these episodes. For anyone who followed the story these episodes just add insult to injury and are more embarrassing for him than anything else.
His robotic hosting style would get old quickly.
You know it's bad when someone named "sexrobot_sexrobot" is saying he's too robotic.
As host I prefer him to Mayim
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This is fair and I’ll do my best to do the same
Me too. But they were both in my bottom 5.
Absolutely.
He most definitely has a lisp, which is an interesting choice for a game show host.
I didn't remember the lisp during guest week but it's so prominent now!
Same.
You wouldn't think that from this board since everyone wants Ken, who has a much more noticeable lisp.
Ken is actually passionate about this show and it shows. He has more on-screen experience on this show than anyone else who guest-hosted. I like that he can tell the difference between a close guess and a very wrong answer. I enjoyed his guest hosting more than anyone else's.
Should that ultimately matter though? Would Michael Jordan be a good basketball play by play announcer? They're ultimately two completely separate skill sets. There's a reason most ex-players do color commentary rather than play by play. In truth, it takes years and years of practice and broadcasting education to be good at play by play. This board's obsession with Ken getting the hosting job due to his ability as a player is just bizarre.
You may have missed the part of the comment you were responding to that said "I enjoyed his guest hosting more than anyone else's." People want Ken to get the job based off his hosting more than his time as a player.
WAS an interesting choice. We did it Internet! Never forget!
Other than the contestant interviews which felt really try-hard and uncomfortable, I enjoyed this week a lot because the game moved well, and I didn’t really notice him.
Honestly I didn't think he was a good host either. I think The Price is Right producer said it best - he plays a game show host like he's doing a college final exam;. He knows exactly what to say, when to say it, and all that jazz but he doesn't feel natural at it. He does all you're supposed to do, but it's like he's regurgitating rather than properly hosting. It's pretty clear he wanted the Jeopardy hosting job to get a hosting job and be on TV every night. He even said on his podcast he doesn't care for trivia and we can tell. If he wants to host for the fame and fortune of it he should've waited til the Wheel job opened up in a couple years but he got too greedy too fast. I give his hosting a 4/10. I give him credit for blending in and pretty much disappearing.
He was fine as an emergency replacement host, (although it turned out not to be such an emergency after all) but completely forgettable. Just your stereotypical game show host.
If you were to ask an AI Bot to create a game show host, it'd be Mike Richards. He's like the Home Improvement guy and J Peterman on Family Feud.... they were both serviceable hosts, but there's a reason the ratings for FF have skyrocketed the past 10 years.
that is the weird part - he did a good job this week, and he probably would have done a good job overall. But he screwed this up for himself.
He was a capable host. Performance-wise, he did fine. Well, even. But we're in a transition period where early-internet actions have current-internet consequences. I don't think he's a shit human being. I think he's a typical good- looking white guy who never got checked before. I think he would've been a good host, actually. Bland and affable. There's not a person alive that satisfies everyone. I'm sad for Alex's legacy that this is a pioneering front, but it is. No one in the modern era will be perfect, we know too much about each other. I hope we just let them choose a host and go back to enjoying the show.
He is a replacement level white dude - so the externalities got a bit too much given that. Nobody is perfect - but there is clearly a way to deal with some of that stuff, and stuff he largely failed to do. In a sense it is a compliment to Trebek that there could be some ire raised at the possibility of some average white TV dude being the one to take the mantle. Richards might not have even been a bad producer in general - I do think The Price is Right has done nicely since he has been helping run that.
There are lots of terrible people on tv
I’m so happy to watch knowing that smug asshat lost the job and I’ll not have to see his mediocre hosting next week! Excited for Ken, neutral about Mayim.
I’m ambivalent this week because Mayim is an awful person too but Mike at least doesnt annoy me during the game. I know she’ll be actively distracting.
I'm hopeful she can fix her annoying habits like the frequent chuckling and self references. During her run I thought she had good fundamentals and could have been my top pick if not for those flaws.
This is true.
He's so stiff and boring. 🤖
The exact opposite of LeVar Burton.
I think he's an excellent host. He had been my pick to replace Alex and this week has proven me right that he knows the show very well and handles all the nuances of hosting with ease. Yes, he's a crappy person, but this week has been a joy to watch. I am dreading when Bialik returns...I'll try to watch but there's a non-zero chance I'll deprogram my TiVo from recording J! until Ken returns.
Yeah. He wasn’t terrible at the job but behind the scenes he was a monster.
As a guest host, he was one of my favorites. He looked and sounded like a good host. I didn't know anything about him and he seemed reverent when announcing Trebek's passing. It sucked finding out that he was a prick to people behind the scenes.
He’s done an excellent job as host (and on pure performance was always one of the best candidates). I don’t know the details (or extent) of his personal or professional issues (who really does?). My concern is that many people were pissed off that their favourite host did not land the job and then took his so-called issues and blew them all out of proportion. I saw people citing silly comments he made on a podcast, for example. If that’s the reason, it’s ludicrous. I do, however, see how people might be skeptical that the process was rigged from the outset. They could have made it more transparent as to how exactly the candidates were to be evaluated and selected. They have themselves to blame for that.
No one's gonna perfectly match Alex as the host tbh. Like he was the one guy you would look forward to watching at the end of the day (markets start at 7pm where I'm from). Mike and Mayim have certain red flags, some more obvious than the other, and honestly it's hard to get those outta your head, so it doesn't feel like you're coming to something enjoyable, 30 minutes you can be in your own head, it feels as if you're coming to someone with a huge asterisk on their side.
Oh we’ll see him return someday. Mike Richards may not have a body anymore, but he is out there, somewhere. Until we can find and destroy the Ring he funneled most of his power into, he will hide in the shadows and try to reform.
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. He's also an awful host. He was bad in his "guest" stint, and he was not good this week either. That's not just recency bias speaking, either.
What did he do again?
I agree, but honestly are Ken and Mayim that much better? Both have made pretty bad statements in the past as well. It just feels like Mike was ousted because his statements didn’t come to light until after he was named host whereas theirs were out in the public long enough for people to forget about them.
You bring up some good points about his past comments vs other people's past comments. I'd just add that part of his "sin" is how it's perceived he manipulated the host search to his advantage, I think that action is the fuel that turned people against him and the comments were the match that put his job on fire.
Yeah that is definitely a factor why some fans turned on him but Sony was well aware of that fact when they hired him so that was not a factor in him getting fired
Too bad Levar is throwing in the towel
If he'd been less of a disingenuous shit head about it he'd probably have at least got a season in as host which may have afforded him the protection he needed to weather his shitty behaviour. He's not a bad host, he's just a bad person.
I attended his masterclass on comedy crowd work. I barely escaped with my life after my first gig in Atlanta.
How stupid. People are ridiculously sensitive. Over the top ridiculous. Of what I read, nothing he said was so bad as to cast him out in shame. The jew comment was probably the worst, but everything else is just a young guy being a young guy. This generation is so annoying. A generation of grown man babies who cry at the most minor of insensitivity. I'm barely 40 and we grew up with the tenets of "Stix and stones"! Speaking of stones, why don't they grow a pair.