Podcast of TV CONFIDENTIAL Show No. 553: The Jeopardy! Host Debacle: Update with guest Steve Beverly is now available for listening on demand

The Jeopardy! Host Debacle: Update
Original Airdates: Sept. 11-13, 2021
TVC 553.1: Game show historian Steve Beverly helps Ed sort through the latest developments in the ongoing search for a new permanent host of Jeopardy! When Steve visited us in August, Sony Pictures Television had just named Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards as the official successor to Alex Trebek—a controversial choice that, among other things, called into question the integrity of having a long series of guest hosts, many of whom were supposedly in the running for the permanent host position. Since Steve’s last visit, an investigative report from TheRinger.com revealed that Richards had made a series of demeaning remarks on the air about women and people of other races and ethnicities during a podcast that Richards had hosted between 2013-2014. That caused Sony to remove Richards as host of Jeopardy, although he stayed on as executive producer. Last week, however, Sony announced that it had fired Richards altogether and that he would no longer oversee Jeopardy! or Wheel of Fortune. Steve and Ed discuss how the fallout over Richards not only represents a systematic breakdown on the part of Sony (and, particularly, its human resources division), but may be the worst debacle in the history of game shows since the quiz show scandals of the late 1950s.

What Jeopardy! Must Do Next
Original Airdates: Sept. 11-13, 2021
TVC 553.2: Game show historian Steve Beverly talks to Ed about what Sony must do to right the ship and restore the public’s confidence in the Jeopardy! franchise in light of the Mike Richards fiasco; why naming Michael Davies as the interim show runner of Jeopardy! is an important step in that regard; and why it would be a bad idea for the series to do another prolonged round of guest hosts.

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