Tag / Wheel of Fortune

by admin

Double Jeopardy

After Alex Trebek passed away in November, Jeopardy! producers must have hoped that their chosen replacement would rival his 36 year stint as host of the long running quiz show, becoming just as beloved.  Unfortunately, it’s back to the drawing board on that one. Mike Richards, the executive producer who was announced as Trebek’s successor a mere 9 days ago, has stepped down from the role after a long week of scandal reveals and inappropriate comments from a podcast he hosted years ago.  Richards began filming the start of the 38th season on Thursday, and those shows will air for the sake of the contestants.

For the time being, Richards will remain as the executive producer of both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, but you have to imagine that is a temporary measure as his credibility is shot, especially for whoever ultimately replaces him as host.  I can’t imagine a way this could have been handled worse by Sony Pictures Television, who seemingly did no background investigation on Richards prior to hiring him for either job. Or, even worse, they did and didn’t see a problem until the public was made aware.  His podcast was troublesome enough that when asked to comment on it, he deleted both the episodes and the server that hosted them.

In the long run, this may turn out to be a good thing.  Whoever replaced Trebek was going to be under unbelievable scrutiny from fans and players alike.  Now, whoever ultimately gets the job is replacing Richards, and they really have nowhere to go but up.

by admin

A New Era

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.

by jim

Moving Down The Dial

ABC_7_Chicago_2013_logoIn a shocking development, the Cubs reached an agreement today with the local ABC station to air 25 games per season through the 2019 season.  The deal should net the Cubs nearly $19 million per season.  The Cubs are still looking for a broadcast partner for 45 games that had previously aired on WGN.

The move comes out of left field, as most teams games are moving away from over-the-air channels in general, let along network owned and operated stations like WLS.  The deal will likely cause pre-emptions of popular syndicated programs like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune or network programming.

To be honest, this move doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  The plusses of being associated with a hopefully improved Cubs team would seem to be outweighed by complaints from viewers of Dancing With The Stars or Scandal when their shows are delayed.  I guess time will tell if the deal works out for all involved.