Suzanne Prete, executive vice president, business and strategy, “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” have announced that Sony has fired Mike Richards as the executive producer of “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune.”
And now, Michael Davies, the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” executive producer whose Embassy Row shingle is based at Sony, will take over production duties in the interim.
Richards’ exit comes a little more than a week after he was forced to step down as “Jeopardy!” host, just nine days after he was tapped to succeed the legendary Alex Trebek as the face of the beloved quiz show. Richards currently has a rich overall deal at Sony; discussions on the fate of his relationship at the studio are currently underway.
Suzanne Prete said, “We had hoped that when Mike stepped down from the host position at ‘Jeopardy!’ it would have minimized the disruption and internal difficulties we have all experienced these last few weeks, that clearly has not happened.”
Richards gave up the job as host after ugly statements that he had made on an eight-year-old podcast series resurface, and that followed concerns over the host selection process — with whispers that Richards, as host, was able to calibrate the search to replace Trebek in his favor. And it also came following the unearthing of discrimination lawsuits that multiple models working on “Price Is Right,” which he had produced at the time, filed in 2010 and 2011.
Will this be the end of high ratings of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune?
I must admit, he is my favorite host for that game show after Trebek passed away last year.
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