All we hear these days is how white, hetero, cis men are so scared. They’re terrified of being cancelled, horrified that the Cancel Police have the power and authority to take away their jobs, their livelihoods and their complacency. They are so mad that disenfranchised people have a voice in society and that it’s not business as usual. It’s so scary, they wail. Why won’t anyone give sexist, racist white men all of the power and authority? Well, Mike Richards stepped down as Jeopardy host last week because the Cancel Police came for him, and he was held accountable for his long history of sexism, ableism and racism. The hosting job was something he gave himself, as a treat, as executive producer of Jeopardy. While he stepped down as host, he’s still EP. And it’s apparently going to stay that way, because everyone at Sony is bending over backwards to protect the poor marginalized white dude.
Last week, Mike Richards lost his gig as the new host of “Jeopardy!,” faced a rebuke from the Anti-Defamation League, heard an outpouring of dismay from the show’s demoralized staff, and was forced to apologize after it was revealed he made sexist and crude jokes on a podcast several years ago in which he mocked women’s appearances, unemployed workers and the size of Jewish noses.
This week, Mr. Richards is back running the show. And his bosses at Sony appear intent on keeping it that way.
In a show of defiance that has baffled Hollywood, Sony Pictures Entertainment has signaled that it will keep Mr. Richards on as executive producer of “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.” During a call with “Jeopardy!” staff on Monday, Sony’s top TV executive, Ravi Ahuja, made clear that the studio supported Mr. Richards, according to several people briefed on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
Mr. Ahuja praised Mr. Richards for his willingness to step down from the hosting job, saying it was the right move for “Jeopardy!,” and signaled that he expected the crew to move forward from last week’s uproar with Mr. Richards in charge, the people said. He lamented the media coverage of Mr. Richards and instructed the staff not to speak to reporters. Mr. Ahuja also invoked his own upbringing as an Indian American who grew up in the 1970s in Mississippi, where, he said, he faced racially offensive remarks, to emphasize that he was sensitive to concerns about Mr. Richards’s crude comments, the people said.
Mr. Richards has agreed to undergo sensitivity training, the people said.
This ain’t it. This is the boys-club, All-Male-Network sh-t. Just fire this man, for the love of God. During the same call, Mike Richards apologized for his behavior again and asked for a chance to show “who he really is.” People – Sony people – keep acting like Richards just made a couple of dumb, offensive jokes. He was literally a toxic boss who sexually harassed women at The Price Is Right. But sure, he’s getting another chance to f–k it all up.
Richards’ spokesperson also told the NYT that Richards is not currently negotiating an exit package from the show, and sources tell the Times and Sony has hired Suzanne Prete to “oversee Mr. Richards at the show” and “take more of an active presence on the creative direction and strategy.” Ah, that’s cute. The Old Boys Club got their bro a little lady “minder” so he can keep his job.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
It’s just… all this? For THIS guy? WHY???
Agreed. He’s not irreplaceable. He’s been there two years, FCS! It’s not like he’s got decades of institutional knowledge or anything. JFC…
does he have some major dirt on someone at Sony or something? It’s so weird that they’re so committed to keeping him.
He must. Makes no sense otherwise
@ Becks1: You’re probably right.
Sony’s bro central – remember all the leaked emails?
The other guys identify with him. They’re used to getting away with this stuff. It’s “We can’t let a good man go.”
But I don’t see how you go from producer to on air personality. That’s not a thing.
It’s because he represents all of them and they have to rally together to save each other. White male faux-fraternity BS. 🤮
And it’s not JUST white men in the Old Boys Club fraternity. There are PLENTY of men of color who will carry water for white supremacy just so they can get THEIR slice of the pie, have THEIR abusiveness swept under the rug, have THEIR asses protected, and have a free license to abuse and demean women of color that they see as their property and beneath them. Abusers love to circle the wagons and cover for each other.
One stark gender difference I’ve noticed that I wonder if anyone will ever study. Women tend to come up with strict rules of behavior for other women and punishingly enforce them and police other women – the whole mommy blog universe, mommy shaming, breastfeeding shaming, toxic positivity, slut shaming and the like. Even horrors like female genital mutilation are primarily carried out and enforced by women.
Men on the other tend to do the opposite – they do everything they can to help other men evade the rules and get away with “bad behavior,” to the greatest extent possible. They circle the wagons, sweep everything under the rug, and help each other get away with everything they can.
That’s my question. Why? Kick his sorry ash to the curb.
@ Betsy, the fact that Sony is keeping him and have had to hire a babysitter for him is ludicrous!! If he can’t behave as a civilized human being and spew racist and sexist comments for years, what makes Sony think that he is going to change? Are they thinking that his babysitter will enable to keep his abhorrent behaviour under wraps with her there? Does Sony actually believe that sensitivity training is going to change who he is, deep down inside? Sony thinks this POS is going to change, but he won’t because he isn’t being held accountable for his racist and sexist views that have come to light. And I am certain that there are more victims out there!!
I’ve watched this my entire life. There is an epidemic of underreacting to bad actors in this society. For some reason, people have a deep psychological impulse to be afraid of doing anything but the weakest of half measures.
And of course this is infinitely compounded by the person in question being a white man. The whole damn company is going to be restructured to accommodate this asshole.
And she will end up quitting too because of the toxic bro culture there. They are not going to listen to his “minder”.
This is just optics. “Look we hired a woman to oversee this!” 🙄
Plus I bet they aren’t paying her a quarter of what they are paying ThirstyHost Douchebro.
Between Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik, unless they hire a real host, I will no longer be watching Jeopardy.
Same. The show died when Alex died.
How many “chances” do they need to waste. He’s ALREADY shown us who he is. Over and over. That’s the real guy, not whatever fake bs he puts forward now. As if a woman would ever get multiple chances to “prove” she can be a basic human who doesn’t use slurs in every day conversation and harass her co workers
He irreparably damaged the brand and alienated the show’s most famous winners. It makes total sense that Sony would bend over backwards to retain him.
This story is so crazy and has turned me off Jeopardy a show I’ve loved since i was a kid. The fact that thsy gave this man the public facing role of host even after the harassment allegations is insane to me. Then when comments came out showing he was just as misogynistic and tozic as his accusers said he is they removed him as host but are whining about how the press was too hard on him?! Theyre acting like he just said some gross jokes that don’t translate in 2021. It’s not just that. This man clearly has a history of creating toxic work environments and should not be in a position of leadership. If you have to hire a minder to make sure your executive producer doesn’t harass people that person shouldn’t be your executive producer.
All this tells me is that Sony thinks this behavior is acceptable and probably doesn’t want to set the precedent of firing someone ovrr this because it could boomerang back onto more of their top brass. I would NOT like to be left in a room with Mr. Ahuja afer reading this.
I remember first watching Jeopardy when I was like 10 or so, and Art Fleming was the host. Yes, I’m old. Alex Trebek was super, but this last crappy pipsqueak was just an abomination. Unfortunately, it’s off my viewing list now.
Clearly it’s cheaper for Sonny’s to hire another full-time executive than pay out Richards’ exit package and/or any potential lawsuits he might bring.
Nope. The show is done for me. He’s ruined it.
Are you f’ing kidding me!?
Instead of replacing him with someone better- they’re spending money on him, to hire him a babysitter.
Jeopardy is disgusting.
What would anyone watch now?
(Unless they make Lavar Burton host- which they won’t because he is not white).
Truly. Jeopardy may have high brow questions, but they’re just low level trash.
Unfortunately, I read that Mike Richards (in the role of Dick Cheney “searching for” a Vice Pres. for candidate Bush), scheduled the guest hosts so that Levar Burton got 1 week’s trial; whereas, the others got 2 weeks. Also, Levar Burton’s week was up against the Olympic games, resulting in lower ratings than usual. That gives the show an excuse not to choose him and still look neutral. This, despite the fact that Richards himself praised the Jeff Probst as his ideal vision of the white guy host he likes to see on TV. See? No bias there.
No, I suspect that the likability of Alex Trebek blinds people to what’s going on behind the scenes. I think they allowed Richards to run an audition process while he was also in the running for host, and choose himself, and not run additional background checks on whoever the ultimate pick was, and allowed him to stay on after THAT debacle, then compliment Richards for “stepping down” as host – all that is the way the show wants it. I only hope that the Anti-defamation League still proceeds with their investigation, that’s the only thing that will convince the show that Richards is poison.
LeVar is seriously RIGHT THERE. I know some weren’t impressed by his performance, but personally I think he nailed the sort of vocal cadence and chemistry with the contestants that Alex had.
But nope… instead we’ve got the world’s most bland misogynist and a victim-blaming anti-vaxxer.
The fish ROTS at the HEAD…Enough said!
It seems as though the show isn’t worth saving any longer. All over a below average white fame whore of a white male and a white woman who hates anyone who is pretty.
What a disgrace.
Mayim’s hatred is way more deep-seated and horrifying than hating anyone who’s pretty. For example, I’m not pretty, but she’d hate me because I’ve been sexually assaulted multiple times, yet I was not flirting or wearing “immodest” clothing at the time, which is what she seems to think is responsible for rape, rather than rapists making the choice to rape.
She also said this about babies who would die without a C-section: “There are those among us who believe that if the baby can’t survive a home labor, it is OK for it to pass peacefully,” she writes. “I do not subscribe to this, but I know that some feel that…if a baby cannot make it through birth, it is not favored evolutionarily.”
SHE LITERALLY THINKS IT’S OKAY FOR BABIES TO DIE “peacefully” IF THEIR MOTHERS CANNOT SAFELY HAVE A VAGINAL BIRTH UNLIKE HER ‘superior’ self. She thinks those babies aren’t “favored evolutionarily.” This is psycho Hitler levels of sociopathy
Yeah yeah. she claimed there are “some among us” who think that, NOT her, NEVER her, but come the fuck on. That’s like “asking for a friend, NOT ME.”
I have a relative that works in the financial department at Sony and has been working their since before the email hacks became public.
This is the norm he says. He tells me he goes to work, clock in, clock out and then take his ass home.
I see no way this could possibly go wrong /s
If your executive producer needs a babysitter, it’s probably not a good sign. But hey, gotta keep the child happy. This is the definition of coddling.
This is a glimpse of privilege, what the actual??
I have a feeling the person named in this article “Sony’s top TV executive, Ravi Ahuja” will likely get fired before they fire the dud Mike Richards. You know they’re not going to let the white dude go down without taking out a person of color first, right? Nope. Disgusting. Jeopardy is canceled.
They really stomped all over Alex Trebeck’s legacy. No more Jeopardy for me.