Mike Richards fiasco was an indictment of the Jeopardy! hiring process and a betrayal of the show's fact-based reputation

The Atlantic

The bombshell report by The Ringer's Claire McNear that led to Richards' exit as host was an indictment of the "process that had elevated Richards above so many other potential new hosts," says Megan Garber. "That system took the thing that makes Jeopardy!, for so many people, so important and beloved—its abiding conviction that facts are sacred—and betrayed it. The procedure had the sheen of studiousness to it. Sony, in its public messaging on the matter, made great fanfare of the idea that it would be using research and analytics in its effort to find (Alex) Trebek’s successor. Part of that process was the one that has played out over the past several months. For stretches that have typically lasted two weeks, people from varied areas of the media, sports and journalism and sitcoms, have served as guest hosts—among them LeVar Burton, Aaron Rodgers, Robin Roberts, Savannah Guthrie, and Mayim Bialik. (Bialik was ultimately named as a host for Jeopardy’s prime-time tournaments, special episodes that will include a college tournament set to air next year, along with other spin-offs.) The generous view of that approach was that it made for an exceptionally public audition—an illusion of transparency for a show premised on the notion that facts belong to everyone. And the guest-hosted episodes were often delightful: Many of the hosts seemed not just happy, but giddy, to be there. They talked about what the show had meant to them, as viewers and fans. But the transparency, it seems, went only so far. The less obvious element of the guest-host process, as The Ringer’s Claire McNear reported this week, was that Richards, as Jeopardy!’s executive producer, was in a position to influence it—even as he had officially recused himself from it once he, too, was under consideration to replace Trebek. Again and again, in McNear’s reporting, the system that was presented as an embodiment of Jeopardy!’s values—facts, fairness, a meritocracy in miniature—is revealed to be the opposite...And so Jeopardy!, which will interrupt its own proceedings to correct a fact, failed to do basic research about the most elemental question before it. When it came to Richards, reporters did the work Sony itself should have done. The remaining second-string host, Bialik, has supported COVID-19 vaccines but also has a well-known history of vaccine skepticism. On the show, she will arbitrate scientific facts while having publicly doubted the workings of science. For another series, those disconnects might read as errors in casting. For Jeopardy!, they read as betrayals of confidence."

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• What if the Mike Richards debacle was "an instance of nefarious genius?": "Maybe I’ve watched too many James Bond movies, but if you put Auric Goldfinger or Dr. No in charge of the Jeopardy! hosting selection process, they would be wicked and evil enough to understand that anybody replacing Alex Trebek would have faced immediate and intense scrutiny," says Daniel Fienberg. "The replacement would have been on the firing line for their on-camera job performance and for the fickle whims of Nielsen ratings. It would have been an inevitable disappointment that would have stuck to even the best-intentioned of replacements. So why set up the best-intentioned of replacements for that debacle? The James Bond supervillains at Jeopardy! decided — this is a thing my imaginary brilliant, evil Jeopardy! producers decided and should not be inferred to be a thing actually decided by actual Jeopardy! producers — to set up a series of buffers insulating the real new host against at least a modicum of the Trebek replacement pressure he or she would have experienced. The extended series of guest hosts was the primary buffer, months of varied candidates or contenders who were never really intended to be candidates or contenders. Dr. Oz was never going to be the host of Jeopardy!, but he gave Rational Science Twitter something to rend garments over. Aaron Rodgers and Joe Buck both have lucrative day jobs and were probably never going to be the next host of Jeopardy!, but they gave Sports Twitter something to get worked up over. Fans and perhaps especially nonfans got so invested in this thing that had a surface resemblance to a search process that nobody considered that we’d never been told this was the search process. It was just a series of guest hosts. But whoever was announced as the winner of that non-search would have, again, faced something between irritation and anger online, so why subject an actual audience favorite to that response? Even LeVar Burton, patron saint of literacy, has encountered the most gentle of, 'Well, his guest-hosting run wasn’t actually all that good,' backlash in some circles. It was a lose-lose situation, so why not throw somebody ridiculous out there as the choice, let them reap the whirlwind, and then hope that said whirlwind blows itself out eventually? Honestly, why else would you float Mike Richards’ name as the final choice at all? And then, before Richards was official but after the revelation of Richards’ role in harassment and discrimination lawsuits, why would you still formally announce him as the new host a full week later? And then, after he had been formally announced as the new Jeopardy! host but after various dumba** things Richards said on a negligible podcast came to light, why would you let him begin production as host?"
• Ryan Reynolds backs LeVar Burton to host Jeopardy! following Mike Richards stepping down