Hi There!

I hope your Friday is going well. Welcome back to another episode of Ask Ash, where I interview WatchMojo Founder & CEO Ashkan Karbasfrooshan and ask him questions about various topics, ranging from covering what is going on in the news, to giving career advice to students & entrepreneurs.

Jeopardy’s new host Mike Richards is out amid resurfacing of multiple past controversial comments and incidents. Richards executive produced the award-winning shows: Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Production on the show has stopped, as they are now looking for a new host to fill the shoes of the late, and legendary Alex Trebek.

I wanted to get Ash’s Overall Reaction to this news, and his opinion on some of Mike Richards’ comments.

Jeopardy’s new host Mike Richards quit. Any thoughts?

Regardless of whether you like or dislike the term cancel culture, the reality is people are being held accountable not just for their current posturing but also their previous words, actions, and deeds. Managing expectations and crowd control are really key going forward. 

In the former (expectations), Mike Richards could have been more forthright with the show to ensure they wouldn’t be blindsided once social media does its thing… that said, naturally, if you share too much prematurely, you run the risk of taking yourself out of the running, which takes me to the latter (crowd control). If you manage expectations and get ahead of possible red flags, I think that at least it’s possible for you to address past indiscretions and insensitive comments, and give people a second chance, understanding that people have changed/matured. Here, there was probably no candor upfront, which then meant that once the previous comments were unearthed, there was nothing that could be done to remedy it. 

The final wildcard here is the general sentiment towards diversity and inclusion, so you have people like Levar Burton who were fan favorites, or Laura Coates whom Alex Trebek himself voiced as his preferred pick as successor… and you knew that Mike would be DOA and would not have the cover to ride out the storm.

Lastly, if you want to submit questions to Ash directly, you can do so by clicking the link here: https://watchmojo.com/suggest/AskMojo%20-%20WatchMojo’s%20founder%20Ash