Mike Richards Reflects on ‘Jeopardy!’ Firing After Only 1 Day as Host: ‘I Was Concerned’

Mike Richards is finally opening up about his controversial firing from Jeopardy! after just “one day” as host. The former game show star revealed that he was completely shocked when he was offered the hosting role in the first place.

​​”No one was more surprised than me,” he told People in an interview published on Wednesday, March 20. “They told me, ‘We’d like you to be the host of the syndicated version of Jeopardy!‘ I paused, and said, ‘Oh wow. Thank you. What’s the media plan?’ Because I was very concerned that this was going to be scrutinized as closely as a presidential election. There was widespread belief that whoever got the job first wouldn’t make it.”

Mike, 48, initially got the job of Jeopardy! host after the death of Alex Trebek in November 2020. He had decades of experience as a producer in the game show circuit and was named the executive producer of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! in 2020. But he admitted that he received a not-so-warm welcome from longtime fans of the show after his hosting role was announced.

“Everyone was so angry because it looked like I had gone into a room and picked myself,” he said. “And that’s not what happens in television, but I understood that that’s what the outward appearances were.”

Prior to that, several celebrities had thrown their hats in the ring for the Jeopardy! hosting job, including Aaron Rogers.

“Aaron Rodgers was definitely the most prepared,” Mike said. “I was blown away by that, the intensity in which he prepped, and he was so lovely to everyone on staff. But ultimately I worried about his other job that he does on a pretty high level. I was like, ‘How are you going to work this out with football scheduling?’ He said, ‘You’ll figure it out!'”

Mike made his debut as Jeopardy! host during the 2021 season. He lasted only five episodes before he was fired from the program due to offensive and controversial remarks made in past episodes of his podcast, “The Randumb Show.”

After his August 2021 firing, he did end up apologizing for the remarks he made.

“It is humbling to confront a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago,” he said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly at the time. “Looking back now, there is no excuse, of course, for the comments I made on this podcast and I am deeply sorry. The podcast was intended to be a series of irreverent conversations between longtime friends who had a history of joking around.”

Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik were brought in to split hosting duties after Mike was fired from the show. In December 2023, it was confirmed that Ken, 49, would be the sole host of Jeopardy! Now, Mike is voicing his support for the show’s current host. “I always thought Ken was the guy,” he shared.