Mike Richards is Wheel of Fortune's new Executive Producer

Ugh, screw this. Just go away.

Why is this the timeline we're in?

Jeopardy! doesn't need any changes, and changes shouldn't be made, certainly not while Alex is still there. People have discussed for years that WOF could use some changes, and I won't go into those.

Yay! New exec producer! Just one more season of Harry producing. I haven't watched Tpir in a while but seems like that show is doing well. Also, I know this is a little off-topic, but who is the new exec producer of Tpir? Hopefully for Season 38, he will do some good stuff to the show. Like adding new amounts to the Wheel, just making the Bonus Minimum $35,000, and FINALLY a Wheel Tournament. It could work like Jeopardy!'s Tournaments.

I knew it. Sony showed favoritism and nepotism towards Mike. What's next, they're going to make him as host?

Honestly, Mike Richards coming on board is exactly the breath of fresh air the show needs.

Say what you will about his work on Price, and I certainly wasn't a fan of a lot of it, but he is not the same producer that he was 10 years ago. He seems to have learned from his mistakes, and is able to bring new things to the fold while honoring the past and not making too many major changes.

The fact of the matter is, Wheel is stale as fuck right now. The show sorely needs fresh blood, and I said it from day one: Mike Richards is it. As for Jeopardy!, I really don't see him making too many changes, especially not while Alex is still at the helm. Even when Alex leaves, the show has such a strong, contestant and material driven format, that changes won't be necessary for the show to stay strong... so long as a new host can keep the game moving, the show will be fine.

Mike was extremely successful at one major thing over at CBS: turning The Price is Right into Drew Carey's show. I recently rewatched a bunch of Season 36 episodes on YouTube, and they all felt like Drew was hosting Bob's show. It came off as awkward, forced, and overall not very entertaining. If that had continued to air, the show wouldn't have survived. Mike successfully kept the show afloat, even if there were a few rough years at the start, and made it feel like Drew's show, while honoring the show's past. Also keep in mind that there are many hands on top of Fremantle's productions- the other executive producer is the CEO of the company- so it's not entirely fair to blame everything that happened over there on Mike. Even then, a lot of the crazy things they were doing early on got notably toned down in recent seasons... they don't use guest showcase presenters very often anymore, the classic cars are gone, their attempts at adding a house band failed and they quickly abandoned it, and they largely stopped trying to force comedy into the show.

Most importantly, ratings have improved under Mike's tutelage. This is ultimately what matters most.

So yeah, I'm actually optimistic by this announcement... though not surprised, since rumors have been circulating ever since he got hired at Sony. I haven't watched Wheel in several years because of how boring it has been... he might just be the one to change that.


This is ridiculous. They scouted out an experienced producer with a track record of success and hired him. No favoritism involved. Also, he hosted The Pyramid for GSN and did a damn fine job, so honestly, if he were to take over as host, that wouldn't be a bad thing either.


You know this is the kind of hateful speech we frown upon around here. You also have an unhealthy anger towards him for things he did years ago... things he's learned from and have toned down immensely. Really, the only thing they've done lately that really irks me is the godawful College Rivals format... which could have been somebody else's bad idea entirely, not Mike's.


Only Price. John Quinn is taking over Let's Make a Deal. Of course, the real showrunner is Fremantle CEO Jennifer Mullin.

Name one example of Sony picking random people off the streets and picking one of their employees to host.

Go on. I'll wait.

You know what, at this point I'll take "robotic" over the over-caffeinated style that seems to be the norm now.

This is the change that Wheel has literally been dying for. This will anger the die-hard fans but I don't care. The game is dull, it's boring, it's the same stuff we've been dealing for 25+ years. Sure it still gets decent ratings but Wheel is an old people's game. The show needs to reach out to younger audiences, and the college and teen weeks aren't necessarily doing the greatest job. It's time Wheel needs a major overhaul. Hopefully with Mike coming in next year maybe we can see Wheel come out of its shell and branch out to streaming services and get way more involved on social media. Jeopardy needs essentially no changes because of the show's recent surge in popularity. With more youth involved in the production of Wheel, who knows what will happen?

I was being half-facetious when I said that, but given Price and Deal have both had specials embracing past contestants, I think Mike will at least consider something similar for Wheel sometime down the line. Wheel is the only game show that doesn't allow any former contestants of any past version back on, period. Jeopardy! allows contestants from the Fleming era and Jep!, Family Feud allows contestants from the pre-Anderson eras (I recall a Dawson family reappearing with Anderson), Millionaire had the occasional Second Chance weeks, even the revivals of Press Your Luck, Card Sharks, and Double Dare bring back contestants from the original runs.