New Jeopardy! Host Forced The Price Is Right Models To Wear Shorter Skirts & Discriminated Against Pregnant Women, Claim Lawsuits

Remember when viewers were upset with the casting of Mike Richards as the new host of Jeopardy! simply because he wasn’t their favorite choice?

Yes, the executive producer who jumped into hosting duties this week was set up for failure with audiences from the start. After all, they were first given an array of celebrity guest hosts, from returning champion Ken Jennings to Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton. At least fans of Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik‘s test run got thrown a bone as she’ll be hosting those few scattered primetime specials…

But the new host is just… some guy named Mike Richards, whose only qualifications seem to be that he was among those choosing who got to do the job. And that was enough reason for viewers to be incensed.

However, it turns out there may be a more serious reason to dislike this news. If what we’re now hearing is true, it’s possible that he may just be a sexist pig.

Before he was a producer on Jeopardy!, Richards was an executive producer on another beloved game show, The Price Is Right. During his tenure there he was… named in multiple lawsuits.

Yes, apparently the models who worked on the show had a lot of issues with the way that ship was run — enough to make it known with legal filings.

Brandi Cochran

In 2010, both Shane Stirling and Brandi Sherwood Cochran filed suits claiming they were discriminated against because they got pregnant. In her suit, Cochran claimed she tried to delay having a child after seeing producers harass two models who got pregnant — and straight up firing another. She says she had a miscarriage in 2007 but then got pregnant again in 2008, with twins. Richards’ reaction to that news, per the filing, was “[putting] his face in his hands” in exasperation:

“He asked her twice, in an annoyed tone, ‘Twins? Are you serious? … You’re serious?'”

She claims he later implied to her that if the show had known about her pregnancy earlier, she would have just been fired. Real nice guy ya picked there, Jeopardy!

Cochran also alleges in her lawsuit that Richards’ general attitude toward the models was sexist and objectifying:

“Richards decided that the models’ skirts should be shorter and said that he liked the models to look as if they were going out on a date. At his suggestion, models wore bikinis on the show more frequently.”

Cochran lost one of the twins and the other was born premature. Over the next few weeks she struggled both in dealing with the loss and in learning to care for her surviving child’s special needs. During this time off, her contract was terminated.

The model won her lawsuit and was awarded a whopping $8.5 million — though the judge eventually overturned the ruling due to a legal technicality and instead the producers settled with her out of court.

Lanisha Cole

Just a year later, in 2011, model Lanisha Cole named Richards, producer Adam Sandler (no relation), and Fremantle Media North America in her suit, claiming sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Cole’s harassment claim is mostly focused on Sandler. However, as part of her larger description of the work environment, she also claims that in 2009, Richards suddenly stopped speaking to her — just completely ghosted her, despite sometimes needing to communicate work issues. In those cases he’d only give her messages through colleagues.

She says she later found out this was because he’d begun a “close, personal and intimate” relationship with another one of the models. Presumably there was a jealousy element? In any case, not at all professional conduct.

And this is the guy chosen to fill the shoes of the legendary Alex Trebek?? Well, look who did the choosing, we guess. (Also him.) Sigh.

[Image via Jeopardy!/YouTube.]