Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Mike Richards steps down from ‘Jeopardy!’ gig after antisemitic comments unearthed

That was quick.

Two days after The Ringer reported on Mike Richards’ past podcast remarks, in which the newly appointed “Jeopardy!” host made offensive remarks about poor people, Haitians and Jews, Richards announced he was stepping down.

“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 wrote in a statement released Friday to the staff of the show.

On several episodes of Richards’ podcast “The Randumb Show,” Richards was heard to have made some unseemly comments, asking his co-host if she had taken nude pictures of herself and, in one instance, when talk turned to big noses, said of a woman, in pig Latin, “she’s not an ew-Jay.” The Anti-Defamation League had called for an investigation into the past comments.

Richards, the executive producer for “Jeopardy!” had been a controversial choice for host even before his comments resurfaced. Mayim Bialik, who was picked to host special spinoff competitions, also generated controversy for allegations about her vaccine hesitancy (Bialik is vaccinated and vaccinated her children), remarks seen as “shaming” Harvey Weinstein’s victims and, in a Daily Beast piece, her support of the IDF. (That piece itself was controversial for calling the Israeli army the “genocidal IDF.”)

Bialik is still set to have hosting duties for the trivia show’s primetime specials. In his memo, Richards indicated that Sony would resume the “search for a permanent syndicated host. Richards will continue on in his capacity as executive producer.

In the meantime, despite all the controversy, Richards is still only the second-most problematic Michael Richards.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.