Previous danger! For a Day host Mike Richards gives the answers

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former Danger! Producer Mike Richards is finally opening up about what went wrong for him during his ill-fated stint as host two years ago.

Richards was announced as the full-time replacement for the late Alex Trebek in 2021. He lasted just one day before resigning after questions arose about his behavior.

“We never discussed how to replace Alex once we knew he was sick,” Richards said. People in a new interview. “A conversation like that would be very disrespectful. We talked about people coming over and hosting guests if Alex got really sick. But we always knew Alex would come back until the day he decided he couldn't.

Trebek died of pancreatic cancer in November 2020. At that point, several guest hosts had been brought on as executives struggled to decide who would be the host.

Auditions included Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers, Joe Buck and Robin Roberts. During this process, Richards was brought into the mix and eventually offered the job.

“No one was more surprised than me,” he added. “They said to me, 'We'd like you to be the host of the syndicated edition of' Danger!“So I stopped and said, ‘Oh, wow. Thank you. What is the media plan? Because I was very concerned that this would be scrutinized as closely as a presidential election. There was a widespread belief that whoever got the job first would not get there.

Richards also served as a producer for Wheel of fortuneHe added: “Everyone was so angry, because it seemed like I walked into a room and chose myself. This is not what happens on television. But I understood that this is the outward appearance.”

Eventually, details of Richards' alleged treatment of A.J The price is correct A sample from a previous discrimination lawsuit immediately resurfaced.

“I hosted one day,” he said. “And then the Anti-Defamation League was called in to investigate me.”

The investigation was fueled by exposing V.I Ringingwhich detailed offensive statements referring to women, Jewish people, and people with mental disabilities that he made on a podcast he hosted in 2013.

“I told them, 'I'll answer anything. I'm an open book, proud of what I've done. I'm proud of my track record as president,'” Richards said. “But by then, everyone was saying, 'Oh, he's just a terrible person.'” This was the price you paid for jumping into the zeitgeist at a completely inopportune moment.

Richards said he's finally talking about the experience of clearing the air around his experience in the cultural storm.

“I feel like I can be a force for good in terms of having open and honest conversations. We can all disagree about a lot of things. We can disagree about politics. We can disagree about who hosts Danger! We can disagree about our liking for the final Danger! an idea. And we must. But I felt like there was this rush of judgment, and a lot of people were happy to say, 'I get you.'

Since his firing, Richards has still been pitching game show concepts.

“If I did a show and someone asked me, ‘Are you going to host it?’” I say: Only if you think I'm the right man for the job. “I don't care if you have someone else in mind,” he said.

Richards adds that there's no regret on his part about the Jeopardy gig eventually going to Jennings: “I always thought Ken was the guy.”