Mike Richards | |
---|---|
Born | Burbank, California, U.S. | July 5, 1975
Alma mater | Pepperdine University |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1997–present |
Television | Executive producer of Let's Make a Deal and The Price Is Right (2009–2019) Executive producer of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! (2020–2021) |
Spouse | Stephanie Richards |
Children | 2 |
Michael Richards (born July 5, 1975 [1] ) is a former American television producer, game show host, and television personality. He was most notably the executive producer of the American television game shows Let's Make a Deal and The Price Is Right from 2009 to 2019, and of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune from 2020 to 2021. Richards also hosted other television series including High School Reunion , Beauty and the Geek , Pyramid , and Divided , and was executive producer of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2020.
In August 2021, Richards briefly succeeded Alex Trebek as host of the daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! after Trebek's death in 2020. However, Richards resigned as host later that month due to criticism over offensive comments that he made on The Randumb Show podcast, as well as wrongful termination and sexual harassment lawsuits from models during his time as the executive producer of The Price Is Right. Richards hosted only a week's worth of episodes, which aired in September 2021 as part of the show's 38th season. [2] [3]
Richards was born in Burbank, California, and attended Pepperdine University. [1]
Richards began his career in college where he created, wrote, produced, and hosted a weekly late-night comedy talk show called The Randumb Show at Pepperdine University. The show featured celebrity guests including Kim Fields, Casey Kasem and Anson Williams. [1] Richards went on to intern for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno . Between 1996 and 2003, he regularly performed stand-up comedy in Los Angeles. [4]
Richards was the second host of Beauty and the Geek and produced numerous game shows, including Weakest Link . [5] He later hosted seasons of High School Reunion on The WB. [6]
During his early career, Richards was vice president of development and current programs for Dick Clark Productions. [1] He hosted the daily movie news show Dailies for three years and served as a correspondent for the American Music Awards and the 2005 Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve . [7]
From 2009 to 2019, Richards was the executive producer of The Price Is Right and Let's Make a Deal . [8] He was also a candidate to host The Price Is Right in 2007 before Drew Carey was chosen. [9] In interviews of those two shows, Richards was described as "exclusionary and dismissive of longtime show employees"; he fired announcer Rich Fields and held on-air auditions, similar to the ones he later used on Jeopardy!, to hire George Gray as Fields's replacement. He also dismissed longtime producer, and longtime friend of Bob Barker, Roger Dobkowitz. [10] Richards often neglected Deal and was frequently absent from day-to-day operations. A post-producer was fired after sarcastically making an introduction that drew attention to Richards's absences. [4]
Beginning in 2013, Richards hosted a podcast, The Randumb Show, which was promoted as a look at the production of Price. The Ringer reported that Richards, "repeatedly used offensive language and disparaged women's bodies". [4] In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League criticized his disparaging stereotyping of women, Jews, Asians, and the disabled on the podcast and called for an investigation, [11] after which Richards apologized for the material and took the podcast offline. [4] [12]
Richards was the subject of two wrongful termination lawsuits from models on The Price Is Right; one lawsuit was by Brandi Cochran, who alleged that CBS and FremantleMedia discriminated against her by firing her after she became pregnant with twins, [13] and another was by Lanisha Cole, who claimed that Richards and fellow producer Adam Sandler (not to be confused with actor and comedian Adam Sandler) berated her in front of her peers and wrongfully terminated her. [3] [14] The Hollywood Reporter stated that Richards made a disparaging comment about Cochran's pregnancy at a 2008 party, [13] and that Richards claimed she was fired because he thought that she "would not take us to great." [2]
Richards hosted GSN's 2012 revival of The Pyramid [15] and the network's American version of Divided , which aired on the network from 2017 to 2018. [16]
Richards left both Price and Deal in 2019 and joined Sony Pictures Television, [17] where he was assigned to the ABC primetime return of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as an executive producer alongside host Jimmy Kimmel and Michael Davies for the nine-episode first season of the show during the 2019–20 season. [18] Richards also served as the executive producer for the 2021 GSN revival series of Chain Reaction . [19] [20] For the 2020–21 season, Richards succeeded Harry Friedman as executive producer of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! [21]
After Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek died on November 8, 2020, Richards appeared at the start of the November 9 episode to pay tribute to him. [22] Richards later filled in for two weeks as a guest host of the show, with his first episode airing on February 22, 2021. [23] On August 4, it was reported that Richards had entered "advanced negotiations" to become the permanent host, though with other candidates still in contention. [24] [25] After that announcement, a lawsuit filed against Richards and others during his tenure as the executive producer of The Price Is Right resurfaced, causing controversy. [25] [26] [27] On August 11, it was announced that Richards would succeed Trebek as host of the daily show, with Jeopardy! guest host Mayim Bialik hosting future prime-time specials and spinoffs. [28] [29] However, on August 20, it was announced that Richards would step down after offensive comments he had made in the past emerged. [30] [4] It was also alleged that he had multiple conflicts of interest while participating in the host selection process. [4] The five episodes Richards filmed the previous day, the show's first day of production on the new season, [31] aired in September to kick off the show's 38th season. [32]
Richards initially remained executive producer of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! after resigning as host, with the backing of Sony Pictures and the head of its television division, Ravi Ahuja. [33] However, on August 31, 2021, a week and a half after Richards resigned as permanent host, he was fired as executive producer of both shows. Michael Davies from Embassy Row served as interim executive producer for Jeopardy! following Richards's departure, [34] [nb 1] and on April 14, 2022, was announced to be taking the role full-time. [36] On March 23, 2022, it was announced that Bellamie Blackstone would take over the executive producer role for Wheel of Fortune. [35] Bialik and Ken Jennings were eventually chosen as co-hosts for the syndicated version of Jeopardy! on July 27, 2022. [37]
Richards and his wife, Stephanie, have two sons. [1]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2003 | The Other Half | Himself | 1 episode |
2004 | Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve 2005 | Correspondent | |
New Year's Rockin' Eve 2005 | Correspondent | ||
2006–2008 | Beauty and the Geek | Host | 31 episodes |
Dallies | Host | 23 episodes | |
2008 | High School Reunion | Host | 4 episodes |
2009–2013 | The Bold and the Beautiful | Thad/Interviewer | 2 episodes |
2012 | The Pyramid | Host | 40 episodes |
2013 | The 40th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards | Himself | |
2016 | The 43rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards | Himself | |
2017 | WGN Morning News | Himself | 1 episode |
The Talk | Himself | 1 episode | |
Hollywood Today Live | Himself | 1 episode | |
Divided | Host | 105 episodes | |
Home & Family | Himself | 2 episodes | |
2018 | The 45th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards Red Carpet Live | Himself | |
The 45th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards | Himself | ||
Cover Story | Himself | 1 episode | |
Unsung Hollywood | Himself | 1 episode | |
2020–2021 | Jeopardy! | Host | 15 episodes, also executive producer |
Entertainment Tonight | Himself | 2 episodes | |
Today | Himself | 2 episodes | |
2021 | GMA3: What You Need to Know | Himself | 1 episode |
Year | Award | Work | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game/Participation Show | The Price Is Right | Nominated |
2012 | Let's Make a Deal | Nominated | |
2013 | Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show | Nominated | |
The Price Is Right | Won | ||
2014 | The Price Is Right | Nominated | |
Let's Make a Deal | Nominated | ||
2015 | The Price Is Right | Nominated | |
2016 | Let's Make a Deal | Nominated | |
The Price Is Right | Won | ||
2017 | Nominated | ||
Let's Make a Deal | Nominated | ||
2018 | Nominated | ||
The Price Is Right | Won | ||
2019 | Nominated | ||
Let's Make a Deal | Nominated | ||
2020 | The Price Is Right | Nominated | |
2021 | Jeopardy! | Won | |
2022 | Writers Guild of America Award for Quiz and Audience Participation | Nominated |
The Price Is Right is an American television game show where contestants compete by guessing the prices of merchandise to win cash and prizes. A 1972 revival by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman of their 1956–1965 show of the same name, the new version added many distinctive gameplay elements. Contestants are selected from the studio audience. When the announcer calls their name, they use the show's famous catchphrase, "Come on down!"
Game Show Network (GSN) is an American basic cable channel owned by the television network division of Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along with new, first-run original and revived game shows. The network has also previously aired reality competition series and televised poker.
George Alexander Trebek was a Canadian-American game show host and television personality. He was best known for hosting the syndicated general knowledge quiz game show Jeopardy! for 37 seasons from its revival in 1984 until his death in 2020. Trebek also hosted a number of other game shows, including The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare, High Rollers, Battlestars, Classic Concentration, and To Tell the Truth. He also made appearances, usually as himself, in numerous films and television series.
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show. Griffin also created several game shows, including Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, through his production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment.
Mayim Chaya Bialik is an American actress, author and former game show host. From 1991 to 1995, she played the title character of the NBC sitcom Blossom. From 2010 to 2019, she played neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, for which she was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015 and 2017. Bialik shared hosting duties of Jeopardy! with Ken Jennings on a rotating basis between August 2021 and December 2023.
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Vanna Marie White is an American television personality and game-show hostess, best known as the co-host of the game show Wheel of Fortune, a position she has held since 1982. She began her career as a model while studying fashion, competing in Miss Georgia USA in 1978. In addition to her work on Wheel of Fortune, she has played minor characters or appeared as herself in many films and television series, and is the author of the 1987 autobiography Vanna Speaks. She also participates in real-estate investment, owns the yarn brand Vanna's Choice, and is a patron of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
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Michael Peterson Davies is a United States-based British television game shows producer. He is best known for bringing the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to American television. Since 2014, he has hosted a podcast entitled Men in Blazers alongside journalist Roger Bennett. Since 2021, he has served as the executive producer of the game show Jeopardy! following Mike Richards' departure from the program due to various controversies.
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