New ‘Jeopardy’ Host’s Crude Podcast Comments Unearthed
‘BOOBY PICTURES?’
Newly selected Jeopardy! host Mike Richards made crude comments about women, Jews, and Haiti on a podcast, The Randumb Show, that he hosted while an executive producer of The Price Is Right. He also said he was “horrible at all trivia” and he “never would have gotten on Jeopardy!” Following the 2014 iCloud photo hack that exposed many celebrities’ naked photos, Richards asked his podcast co-hosts, both younger women, whether they had ever taken nude photos: “Like booby pictures? What are we looking at?” When one host mentioned working as a model at CES in another episode, Richards alternately called her a “booth ho,” a “booth slut,” and a “boothstitute.” In a later episode, he said one-piece swimsuits made women look “really frumpy and overweight.” In response to a remark about big noses in January 2014, he said, “Ixnay on the ose-nay. She’s not an ew-Jay.” When a co-host discussed difficulties with her apartment, Richards responded, “Does Beth live, like, in Haiti? Doesn’t it sound like that? Like, the urine smell, the woman in the muumuu, the stray cats.” He apologized in a statement to The Ringer: “It is humbling to confront a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago. Looking back now, there is no excuse, of course, for the comments I made on this podcast and I am deeply sorry.” The episodes were removed from circulation.