Sounds like she thought the gig would go to Mike Richards all along.
Update, August 20, 2021 at 10:45 a.m. ET:
Mike Richards has shared an internal memo with staff members announcing that he has stepped down as the new weekly host of Jeopardy!. This comes just one week after the quiz show announced him and Mayim Bialik as the two new cohosts (Mayim will host primetime specials). Deadline reports that Mike will continue to be an executive producer on the quiz show.
On Wednesday, The Ringer published a piece detailing offensive and derogatory comments Mike had made in his past. He issued an apology in response to the report. Mike also came under fire when decade-old harassment and discrimination lawsuits filed against CBS from his time on The Price Is Right resurfaced online.
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Mike’s message to the Jeopardy! staff reads in full:
Dear Team,
It pains me that these past incidents and comments have cast such a shadow on Jeopardy! as we look to start a new chapter.
As I mentioned last week, I was deeply honored to be asked to host the syndicated show and was thrilled by the opportunity to expand my role. However, over the last several days it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move for the show. As such, I will be stepping down as host effective immediately. As a result, we will be canceling production today.
SPT will now resume the search for a permanent syndicated host. In the meantime, we will be bringing back guest hosts to continue production for the new season, details of which will be announced next week.
I want to apologize to each of you for the unwanted negative attention that has come to Jeopardy! over the last few weeks and for the confusion and delays this is now causing. I know I have a lot of work to do to regain your trust and confidence.
Mike
Original, August 18, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. ET:
Mayim Bialik is pulling back the curtains of Jeopardy! to let fans know some of the behind-the-scenes conversations surrounding the decision to name her and executive producer Mike Richards as the new hosts of the show.
As Jeopardy! fans know, the show announced last week that both Mayim and Mike will be the new permanent hosts of the beloved quiz show following the death of Alex Trebek last November. Mike will get to host the show throughout the week, while Mayim will host any primetime or spinoff specials throughout the year.
After the announcement came out, Mayim promptly hopped on Instagram to share the news with her fans. In a video posted to her page last week, Mayim said that she was both “super freaked out” and “thrilled” to be given the opportunity. She also shared some interesting intel about her interactions with Mike while she guest hosted the show for two weeks in June.
“[Mike] is actually the person who trained me, when I was on Jeopardy!, he’s been the executive producer and I had a really, really amazing time with him,” she shared in the video. “I cried when I left, he may have shed a tear.”
During the video, the neuroscientist and Call Me Kat star explained that her 15-year-old son, Miles, first had the idea that she should guest host Jeopardy! after seeing folks on social media talking about how perfect she would be for the role. After telling his mom, Mayim went to her agent — and the rest is history.
Mayim also went on to hint that she had known about the host offer for quite some time, even before the August 4 Variety story broke that Mike was in “advanced negotiations” with Sony to become the next permanent host.
“I have known, both Mike and I have known. So there was a leak last week, don’t worry,” she explained, referring to the Variety story. “Everything’s fine, everything’s great. This is the plan. Sony is very, very lovely to do this the way they’ve done it. It’s really beautiful.”
In another Instagram video, which Mayim posted the same day, she spilled even more details about the Jeopardy! host selection process. By the sound of things, Mayim was content all along to have a less involved role in Jeopardy!, given her other projects and career endeavors.
“Spoke to Mike Richards, who is my fellow host of Jeopardy! now, and that was really awesome to get to tell him how I thought all along that he was going to be the host,” she gushed. “And it was really, really nice … thanking everyone for negotiating on my behalf so that I could continue to do Call Me Kat and continue to do my podcast and all those things.”
Mayim and Mike were named the new hosts of Jeopardy! after the show invited a roster of celebrities, athletes, journalists and Jeopardy! champions to try out for the role. Many fans were surprised to hear that Mike, who has been an executive producer on the quiz show for over a year, got the gig over fan favorite and Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton. Despite fan insinuations that Mike “gave himself” the gig, the executive producer has maintained that though he was initially involved in the selection process, the choice was not his decision.
Around the time of the announcement, decade-old discrimination and harassment lawsuits against CBS resurfaced from when Mike worked on The Price Is Right. One involved a former model named Brandi Cochran, who claimed that she was fired from the game show after becoming pregnant with twins (the case ended up settled).
Responding to these lawsuits, Mike sent out an internal memo to Jeopardy! staff that in part read, “I want you all to know that the way in which my comments and actions have been characterized in these complaints does not reflect the reality of who I am or how we worked together on The Price is Right.”
Mike and Mayim will officially take over starting on September 13, which marks the beginning of season 38.
