Jeopardy: Mike Richards Apologizes to Staff in Virtual Meeting

Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards may have said goodbye to his hosting duties on the beloved syndicated series, but don't expect him to vacate his EP role.

Per Deadline, the show's staff attended a virtual meeting on Monday morning, and Richards reportedly apologized for his comments about female co-hosts, as well as remarks about Jews and Haitians.

The controversial comments were made on a podcast called The Randumb Show, which was unearthed by The Ringer earlier this month. In the aftermath, the offending episodes were removed from the internet.

During the meeting, it was reported that multiple workers on the show said they believed the star would have resigned as an EP.

Ravi Ahuja, Sony's top TV executive, was also present during the aforementioned town hall, and he noted that the show was taking the problem seriously.

The purpose of the meeting was to get everyone together to boost morale, which had taken a dip following all of the recent drama.

Richards' exit was announced in an internal memo obtained by Deadline on Friday.

"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," Richards shared. 

"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," he continued.

"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."

In the interim, Mayim Bialik will be back as a guest host. The Call Me Kat star was previously announced to be leading primetime editions of the series.

Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.