What is: another scandal for $1000? Mike Richards, the newly-named Jeopardy! host set to replace the late, great Alex Trebek, is facing a new round of backlash over his past comments about women.
According to reporting by The Ringer, the comments in question stem from Richards’ own podcast, The Randumb Show, which he hosted from 2013 to 2014 while working as an executive producer on The Price is Right.
The TV executive is heard in one particular episode referring to his co-host and former assistant Beth Triffon as a “booth hoe,” “booth slut,” and “boothstitute” during a discussion of her past work as a CES model. In another, he lambasts a photo of his co-host and her female friends, calling them “really frumpy and overweight” and saying, “They all look terrible in the picture…They look fat and not good in the picture.”
Related Video
That’s not all. Elsewhere in the podcast’s archives, Richards is heard using derogatory language to describe both little people and mentally disabled people. However, he was quick to lavish praise on both Jeff Probst and Ryan Seacrest.
“Jeff Probst had a daytime talk show, which I was cheering for because I like, you know, the average white-guy host. I cheer for him to succeed because I feel like through his success I could have some success hosting,” he said of the Emmy-winning Survivor host, before adding of Seacrest, “I think he’s actually made the world a safer place for what I like to call the skinny white host, like George [Gray] and I.”
Richards offered a statement to The Ringer following his comments coming to light, calling them, “a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago” as well as “a series of irreverent conversations between longtime friends who had a history of joking around.” He went on to apologize and explain that he had taken down the offending episodes.
Of course, this latest revelation follows the series of lawsuits directed at Richards by former models at The Price is Right, accusing him of pregnancy bias and discrimination.
