Nearly 9 months after the death of Alex Trebek, Sony Pictures Television has found their new hosts (yes, hosts) for Jeopardy!. Mike Richards, who became the executive producer of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune for the 2020-2021 season, has been named the host of the daily syndicated version of the show. Richards, who guest hosted for two weeks at the end of February and into March, had previously hosted the 2012 revival of The Pyramid for Game Show Network and was the executive producer of The Price is Right and Let’s Make A Deal for over a decade before joining Sony in 2020.
In addition to Richards, Mayim Bialik will host primetime and spinoff series, including the upcoming Jeopardy! National College Championship set to air on ABC next year. Bialik, the former Blossom and Big Bang Theory star, guest hosted for two weeks at the end of May and the beginning of June.
When word first leaked of Richards getting the job, complaints about harassments lawsuits during his time at The Price is Right surfaced, along with him seemingly having lied about the circumstances around his guest hosting stint. A skeptic might say the Bialik move was an attempt to head off criticisms of yet another white man gaming the system to get a job, although I also wonder how much someone like Bialik would be interested in the main gig, given her other commitments.