Doug's take on today's (8/20/21) J! developments

[dougmorrisontheair]

It's still Friday as I type this in America's Central time zone -- but not for much longer. This is a day that made game show history for the wrong reason.



It's a day a newly named host of J! quickly stepped down from the hosting position. As many reacted and others basked in schadenfreude, the Bill Cullen Archive's Facebook page provided the chuckle we all needed today.



I'm pretty sure Adam Nedeff is the one who photoshopped an image of Bill seated at the current J! host podium. The image was preceded by these words. "In a more perfect alternate universe:"



To Adam's, and perhaps Matt Ottinger's, point, had the game show world not suffered the setback it did, a seasoned pro with tremendous name recognition would have been named as Alex's successor by now.



The setback I speak of wasn't the quiz show scandals from decades ago. However, when you think about it, those scandals did help build J! -- a game show that *legally* gives contestants the answers. All a contestant has to do is be fast with the buzzer and give the host the correct question.



The setback I'm recalling started circa 1989 -- when game shows started to fade away from broadcast networks' daytime lineups. For most of the following decade, the American game show landscape was, in no particular order, WoF, J!, TPiR, "Supermarket Sweep", and not much else. Yes, it was nice seeing revivals and reboots of familiar titles as the 1990s began -- but those reboots sure didn't last long thanks to lousy time slots in syndication. Serious matters such as Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm certainly altered all of television back then.



Roughly five years into the setback, my college days were drawing to a close. I sought refuge in the alt.tv.game-shows newsgroup and a net games universe which pre-dated this one.



To be fair, "Debt" provided much-needed great news for more than one reason. Wink Martindale certainly wasn't wrong when he called it the return of the game show. Several hours before the series premiere, the world of fun and games was shocked when word came of Ray Combs' untimely passing. After the final playing of Bet Your Debt was taped, game shows' comeback story *really* continued when WWTBAM came to American TV.



Before airing on ABC, there were reports Bill Cullen was on the shortlist of potential hosts. Bill passed from this life to the next not long after the setback began.



Had "Scrabble", CS86, $OTC, etc., never left the air -- or if great game shows replaced them -- I'd dare say network daytime game shows would still be a big thing. When Wayne Brady helped bring LMaD back to network daytime television, it was certainly a big help -- would that it and TPiR had other game shows to bounce off of on CBS. If that were the case all across network daytime TV, the shows would still be produced and lead by people who'd really care about the product.



When an icon in the game show world, such as Alex or Bill, passes from this life to the next, competing and sister shows naturally pause and pay their respects. Eventually, the show must go on. Between tapings, the proverbial boxing gloves can be put aside -- while one producer contacts another and says something to this effect. "I'm genuinely sorry for your loss. But as you look to build a new normal, I know someone who can help."



As for today's developments, all I'll say is this. J!'s current ownership needs to clean up this mess — now. Quick fixes aren't necessary. The strive to win Emmy after Emmy needs to resume.

[billmcdee]

As a fan of game shows of the past, which I remember watching in first run back in the 1970s, and as a person who considers myself a fair to midland writer, this article is truly off the charts Doug, and you echo not only my thoughts, but my feelings and my heart with respect to game show history on major networks (NBC, CBS, ABC), back in what I call the "B.C." years (Before Cable).

Sadly I cannot help but to cite a double standard with respect to the Mike Richards' situation.  While a legend in his own time, and while in his prime he was a most outstanding host, Bob Barker has had (and perhaps done) as bad if not worse to certain individuals, yet he was still able to continue hosting Price for 35 years.

I know I have read accounts where Gene Rayburn could be rather caustic at times, and Richard Dawson not always the easiest person to work with.

I have always loved hosts who have had a mix of humor and class.  Bill Cullen definitely had both.  Dick Clark, Allen Ludden, Art Fleming, Peter Marshall, Jim Perry readily spring to mind.

The long and the short of it is we are all humans, all prone to our imperfections, all vulnerable to our vices.  I think now in this day and age of "me too", we're far more aware and far more sensitive to things, especially in this day and age of 24/7 coverage both on cable news and the internet.

To Doug's point, there has been a lack of breeding ground, for lack of a better expression, when it comes to grooming new hosts, or emcees.  I prefer M.C. not only because it's the first two letters of my last name, but the term Master of Ceremonies has a rather nice sound to it.

Said lack of breeding ground did indeed occur when the beginning of the end, late 80s early 90s set in.  I believe Caesar's Challenge, which Tony Lane does a sensational job of on here, was the last new actual NBC game show and I thought Ahmad Rashaad (forgive the spelling errors if there are any) did a decent job as host.  Sadly however, the landscape of daytime network (not syndication) TV was changing because the landscape of America was changing.  A diminishing number of people being home to raise families and such depleted viewship of major daytime network game shows and such, depleted the ratings.

Now with myriad viewing options and choices of things to watch, and countless ways to watch things, television ratings in general are depleted.  Many are "cutting the cable".  I for one only watch Buzzr, some GSN and things on demand on my TV.  

While I am very pleased that CBS still has two game shows in Price & Deal, both shows to me are a bit flawed.

I love Drew and Wayne.  They are sensational at what they do in my humble opinion.  In Price's case, because there is more and more advertising time than ever, far fewer fun and more involved pricing games can be played.  That trend began toward the end of the Barker era.  LMAD to me works far better as a 30 minute show, and I dislike that only one player gets a shot at the Big Deal.

As for Mike Richards, while actions do speak louder than words, words can do a great deal of damage too, hence the phrase "The pen is mightier than the sword."

As for a lack of good and quality hosts available anymore, I indeed am sad and mourn due to that.  I often wonder who, if anybody, will take over for Pat Sajak.  Pat's been hosting Wheel going back to December 1981, nearly 40 years, a most remarkable run.  

I'll end this by paraphrasing a line from a classic Simon & Garfunkel song "Where have you gone Mister Bill Cullen?  Bill Cullen has left and gone away...hey hey hey...hey hey hey..."

[Bill Skinner]

While it certainly is news that Mike Richards resigned as J! host, it certainly was not a surprise to me, mainly because everyone knew the things he did at TPIR would come back to bite him...well, you know where. And FWIW, Mayim Bialik has had her own share of controversy, as I read about her feelings about vaccinations. I never watched a single episode of The Big Bang Theory, but my take is that show only hired her because she's a neurobiologist in real life. Additionally, Alex Trebek said that he would like to be replaced by either a woman or person of color, so that's two instances of lip service that we know of.

While the daytime game show genre is pretty much dead outside of TPIR and LMAD, there are still plenty of syndicated and nighttime offerings to go around (J!, WOF, FF, plus ABC's Fun & Games block). The current trend started back in 1999, when Regis Philbin (may he rest in peace) hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionaire; I always made it a habit of catching the show just to see if someone would end up winning the $1 million top prize, and even after that occurred, I never stopped watching. Same deal with the daily syndicated version with Meredith Vieira, Terry Crews, Cedric the Entertainer and Chris Harrison in the hosting role that fit Regis to a T. There's something about the catchphrase "Is that your final answer?" that brings an amount of suspense to the show and makes it stand out on its own. Sure, other networks may have tried their hand at their own million-dollar quiz shows, but none could hold a candle to WWTBAM.

Back to the subject at hand: I hope Sony is more careful in who they select as the next host, and not do what Fremantle did in 2007 when they picked someone who did not audition for the role of TPIR host that was left vacant by the retiring Bob Barker. He and Alex are national treasures (despite Alex being actually Canadian), and the legacies they left behind will endure through the end of time. Whoever J! gets will need to be worthy of the role and make it their own; basically, they need to view Drew Carey as an example. At first he was uncomfortable, but he has developed his own style of hosting that is very distinct from Bob's, which is exactly what Bob wanted when he passed his advice down to Drew. If Alex were alive today, he would've done the same thing for his potential replacements, because the thing is, there'll never be another Alex Trebek or Bob Barker.

So we'll just have to wait and see what happens during the course of the new season that will begin next month.

[dougmorrisontheair]

Addendum 8/31/21:

On the off-chance you haven't heard, Sony dismissed Mike Richards from his executive producer duties at J! and WoF today.

In a memo to staffers, Suzanne Prete, executive vice president, business and strategy at Sony wrote this: "Michael Davies from Embassy Row has agreed to help with production on an interim basis until further notice."

A lot of us will recall Davies brought "Debt" and WWTBAM to America's television sets. So, the shows are in good hands -- at least for now.

I'm well aware there's an online petition to have Bob Boden as the next permanent EP. If you've seen his garage in the Canadian game show documentary, it's filled with a lot of American game show props and memorabilia.

I wouldn't be unhappy if Boden or Davies got the EP gig. Sony, obviously, needs to strive to make sure these game show treasures are lead by a well-respected experienced leader.

[billmcdee]

WOW!

[Bryan]

Personally they rushed to fill the role! I never actually saw Mike as a host. He seemed more a jerk in my book and I never sensed any kind of good character from him whatsoever! When he hosted Pyramid on GSN (2012), I could tell right off he was never a good fit, for any show! When he hosted this so called show Divided (though I’ve never seen it), it tells me he’s more into stirring controversy than anything! I doubt he will ever be trusted for any roll again!

[koopakid17]

Mike Richards' fall from grace is a prime example of what happens when you let your ego get in the way of your job. Had he just left the search for Alex Trebek's successor to the powers that be instead of inserting himself into the conversation, there's a pretty good chance he'd still be sitting pretty as executive producer of both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

I've been against Mike hosting because he was a newcomer to Sony and had business much better reserved for behind the camera. After Trebek passed, his goal should have been to steer the ship rather than promote himself as captain. I knew something was up at the first announcement that he would be taking the reins from Ken Jennings before the remainder of the guest host parade. I was proven right when the circumstances surrounding how he came to host in Ken's place were revealed. His lie after he roped the staff into his charade should have disqualified him from the start. I can't look at him the same way, especially considering his "better world" signoff now comes across as completely fake.

One tactic that I had been debating with others up until Mike's firing was the use of focus groups to select a permanent host. When it came about that Mike was reportedly doing well in this area, I got suspicious. Jeopardy! averages millions of viewers per day, and focus groups use only a microscopic sample size of that. If anybody has seen the show Impractical Jokers, then you've seen how easy it is for people get swayed in one way of another. The icing on the cake was when this procedure resulted in Ken being shoved aside because of his tweets. Whether or not you agree with Ken's behavior on social media, that's a ticky-tack thing to complain about.

This should serve as a learning experience for everyone involved with Jeopardy!. The show will recover from what happened, but this fiasco was 100% preventable. Fans, such as myself, have felt cheated that the new host search was all for show and their offerings to replace Trebek were ignored. With plenty of options more desirable than Mike, Sony should have seen his intentions from the start. They might have had a plan before Mike came along, but we will never know for sure. With Mike out of the way, here's hoping they're a lot more careful about the process.

As long as it's in good hands, Jeopardy! will live on.

[Bryan]

Call me crazy, but even though I don't watch it as often, I would prefer the guest host route! Keeps it fresh!

[koopakid17]

I’m not opposed if they want to have more guest hosts as long as they can accommodate Mayim Bialik‘s schedule. She did have to step in and tape three weeks of shows after Mike Richards stepped down.

I’m also open for giving LeVar Burton another opportunity, just to see if he improves.

[djshadowwolf420]

True! Also, suck it Richards this is what you get for replacing rich fields you cardboard discount David sparks