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Even before reports about his previous professional behavior came out, the reaction to Mike Richards becoming the new full-time host of Jeopardy! was far from positive.
In the weeks since his appointment as the new host of Jeopardy! , it’s been revealed that Richards was involved with multiple sexual discrimination lawsuits from his time as executive producer of The Price Is Right.
Among those suits was a 2013 case involving former The Price is Right model Lanisha Cole, who accused Richards of “berating her in front of her peers” and another lawsuit by model Brandi Cochran, who “won $7 million in damages from the show’s production companies,” according to Roey Hadar, a producer and former Jeopardy! champion.
Then, on Wednesday, not only was an expose published by The Ringer — in that piece, it’s revealed that Richards “disparaged women’s weight, called one model a ‘booth slut’ and repeatedly praised ‘the average white-guy host'” — but a clip of Alex Trebek suggesting that Laura Coates would make a good Jeopardy! host — an African American lawyer and CNN commentator who never even got a tryout to become host following Trebek’s death — went viral.
Before he passed away, Alex Trebek was asked by @HarveyLevinTMZ to name a woman he would want to replace him as host of @Jeopardy.
Alex suggested @thelauracoates…why hasn’t she gotten a chance to guest host? pic.twitter.com/yCrPlLuF0B
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 10, 2021
Coates isn’t the only Trebek-suggested successor not to get a tryout, as Los Angeles Kings announcer Alex Faust and TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz were also on Trebek’s shortlist. Instead, Richards — an executive producer on the series with no previous hosting duties — got the job. Let’s see how long he keeps it, as it’s hard to imagine both Richards and the show surviving the negative PR they’ve been getting recently. The 38th season of Jeopardy! is currently scheduled begin on September 13.
RELATED: New ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Mike Richards Under Fire Over Racist, Sexist Comments Made On Podcast
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