Aaron Rodgers nearly nabbed the hosting spot on Jeopardy after wowing the show’s producers, one-time host Mike Richards claimed in a new interview.
Rodgers, 40, was allegedly the ‘most prepared’ of all the candidates who tried out to replace the late Alex Trebek, Richards, 48, told People on Wednesday.
Despite getting high marks on his try-out hosting spots, Rodgers was ultimately passed over, and Richards claimed that he was worried about the quarterback’s apparent lack of a plan for how he would balance hosting the iconic game show while still playing in the NFL.
Instead, Richards took over the hosting spot — but only for a single day, after he was fired in the wake of offensive statements that he made on a podcast resurfacing.
According to the fired host, Rodgers seemed to really want to host Jeopardy after admitting that he was a big fan of the quiz show.
Aaron Rodgers nearly nabbed the hosting spot on Jeopardy after wowing the show’s producers, one-time host Mike Richards claimed in a new interview
Rodgers, 40, was allegedly the ‘most prepared’ of all the candidates who tried out to replace the late Alex Trebek, Richards, 48, told People on Wednesday; seen in June 2021
‘Aaron Rodgers was definitely the most prepared,’ Richards opined. ‘I was blown away by that, the intensity in which he prepped, and he was so lovely to everyone on staff.’
But according to him, Rodgers was much less prepared when it came to a potential transition if he won the hosting job.
‘Ultimately I worried about his other job that he does on a pretty high level,’ Richards explained. ‘I was like, “How are you going to work this out with football scheduling?” He said, “You’ll figure it out!”‘
It’s unclear if Richards voiced those concerns to others involved in choosing a new host, or if he could have personally vetoed the athlete.
The behind-the-scenes figure ended up being the host selected to follow up for Alex Trebek, but he proved to be a controversial figure from the start.
Fans were outraged that the celebrities they were fans of had been passed over in favor of Richards, who was a total unknown to the majority of viewers.
Many fans also feared that Richards had essentially given himself the hosting gig instead of more talented candidates, though he denied that that was the case while chatting with People.
‘No one was more surprised than me,’ he said of being selected.
He said he was added to the potential candidates due to his past experience hosting the reality series Beauty & The Geek, as well as the GSN game shows Million Dollar Pyramid and Divided and helping out with Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rocking Eve in 2005.
Richards doesn’t clarify if he sought to be a candidate or if other producers on Jeopardy wanted to try him out, though he contended that he scored well in audience testing.
‘I was blown away by that, the intensity in which he prepped, and he was so lovely to everyone on staff,’ Richards said
But the producer was concerned because Rodgers didn’t seem to have a plan for how to balance hosting with his football career
‘Ultimately I worried about his other job that he does on a pretty high level,’ Richards explained. ‘I was like, “How are you going to work this out with football scheduling?” He said, “You’ll figure it out!”‘; sen in 2021 in Green Bay, Wisc.
‘They told me, “We’d like you to be the host of the syndicated version ofJeopardy,”‘ Richards recalled. ‘I paused, and said, “Oh wow. Thank you. What’s the media plan?”
He explained that he was ‘very concerned that this was going to be scrutinized as closely as a Presidential election.’
‘There was widespread belief that whoever got the job first wouldn’t make it,’ Richards claimed, which turned out to be true for him.
He was assailed by fans after his name was announced.
‘Everyone was so angry because it looked like I had gone into a room and picked myself,’ he explained. ‘And that’s not what happens in television, but I understood that that’s what the outward appearances were.’
Richards made it to hosting for a single day, in which multiple episodes were taped, as is standard practice.
But after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called for him to be investigated after offensive comments he made on The Randumb Show podcast in 2014 resurfaced, his job was in jeopardy.
Although Richards said he cooperated with the ADL investigation, the heat turned up when it was revealed that he was named in wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuits filed by models on The Price Is Right during his stint producing the game show.
‘It was insinuated that I had been personally sued for sexual harassment. I never had, but that didn’t matter,’ he clarified, and he was ultimately dropped from the lawsuits.
But the public relations nightmare had already hardened the public against him, and Richards was fired from Jeopardy before day two came around.
Producer Mike Richards tried out due to past hosting experience, and he shocked fans when he was announced as the new host over higher-profile contenders; seen August 2021 in LA
But Richards only recorded one day of shows before being fired over resurfaced offensive comments he made on a podcast and reports that he was involved in wrongful termination lawsuits by Price Is Right models during his time producing that show
He admitted that the experience was ‘the price you pay for getting thrust into the zeitgeist in a very inopportune moment.’
Although he missed out on his chance to be the permanent host, Richards gave current host Ken Jennings high marks.
He became the permanent host of Jeopardy after Mayim Bialik, who had hosted primetime specials, was let go.
‘I always thought Ken was the guy,’ Richards said.
