Journalist Claire McNear went from writing a Jeopardy! history book to becoming part of the show's history after Mike Richards stepped down as host

The New York Times

Last year, McNear's book Answers in the Form of Questions: A Definitive History and Insider's Guide to Jeopardy! was released, coincidentally, two days after Alex Trebek's death. "Nine months later, McNear’s report for The Ringer on the man who had been chosen to succeed Trebek — the show’s executive producer, Mike Richards — would change the course of that history," writes The New York Times' Julia Jacobs, in an interview with McNear, who listened to all 41 episodes of Richards' podcast The Randumb Show in digging up his offensive comments. What led McNear to his podcast? "He has talked about it in interviews but also, literally, it’s listed — or at least it was — in his official Jeopardy.com bio, that he hosted a comedy news show as a college student called 'The Randumb Show,'" she says. "And I tried to find as much as I could about that show, but it was all taped in the ’90s. It did lead me to the podcast with the exact same name, which is the one that he hosted as the executive producer of The Price Is Right.” At what point did she start to become unsettled by his comments? "It became extremely clear to me very quickly that those things were kind of dotted throughout the episode: He uses sexist language; he uses ableist language; he uses ugly slurs and stereotypes," she says. "There’s a lot of stuff that we did not transcribe in the story that is in there and paints this broader picture of what The Price Is Right was like as a workplace. And he was the co-executive producer at the time — he was the boss, and he was mostly just talking to his employees." McNear adds that the listening/reporting process is "not like what they show in the movies." ALSO: TMZ reports LeVar Burton was never seriously considered as Jeopady! host.