1. I do not agree that he should have been the "voice of the show" when Alex passed away. I understand he is the current executive producer, but by all indications he knew Alex for a very short time. We know Mike only worked with him for a period of months. For the media appearances and tribute, give me somebody who Alex worked with for 30+ years and who actually knew the man. Mike also has a tendency to be robotic in front of the camera which did not work well for me in this emotional situation. Harry Friedman would have been a better choice!
It's a tough situation. But they had literally one/two days to put together that video message and get it in the show and the fact of the matter is that Harry no longer works for the show. In the immediate aftermath, someone that represents the show needs to be out in front and, even though he's new, that person is Mike Richards. He's the boss, he's earned that role and that privilege. If, down the line, they have Harry film some remarks and put it together with remarks from others that worked with Alex longer like Johnny and the Clue Crew (past and present), then that's fine. But Mike runs the show, he's not the face of it, but he is representative of it. That's like saying Bill Clinton should've delivered remarks on 9/11 instead of George Bush because Bush had only been on the job for nine months.
2. Inserting himself into the guest host spot looks like he is taking advantage of Alex's death to further his own career ambitions. If he was not EP and he got slotted in that would be one thing, but who's going to tell the boss he can't host? Maybe they are in a jam for guests hosts and he's stepping up to save the day, but it looks like just another line on his IMDb page to help him land his next gig.
See, the only reason we're talking about him this way is because we're more familiar with him. Numerous people have reportedly had their agents reach out to Jeopardy about the position. It's surprised the agents because they thought Ken was heir apparent. And because the show has to keep filming without taking much of a break, any time after Alex's death is probably a little disingenuous, but it has to happen unless production should've just been shuttered for the rest of the season (which some probably want). And yeah, I get that he's the "boss", but he has a boss too and he's not in charge of the host search. Someone else from Sony is. I forget the name, but they've been mentioned in articles.
This brings me to #2. It doesn't surprise me that Mike would take advantage of Alex's death to boost his hosting resume. Prior to last year, he had zero association with Jeopardy! and only got to know Alex for a few months. As emotional as his speech was, I can't look at him the same way without thinking he's full of it. This also confirms that Mike still has a misguided moral compass. He's had it since he allowed Jenny McCarthy to play on Price because she's "a great advocate for what she believes in".
The fact of the matter is that the timing was just terrible. Of course he had no association with Jeopardy, he didn't work for Sony. He was hired to literally run the show, so that takes his association from zero to 100% automatically, whether we may like it or not. That's how it works. Again, you can say this about first time politicians or any elected President. They had zero association with the office, but once they're installed, they now represent that office and have to make the decisions. No matter how long they've been in the post.
And setting aside the McCarthy decision, this is no indicator of his moral compass. He's someone who has more experience in hosting than *any* of the guest hosts. Like, so far, none of them to my knowledge have hosted a game show. Ken's done quizbowl, and Katie and Bill Whitaker have newsreading, but that's it. It makes total sense for Sony to turn to someone in house that they're already paying who they know has been on camera hosting a game show before to do a few weeks since things aren't as set in stone with Ken as we would've first thought.
*Somebody* has to represent and host this show and it seems like everyone's like "not Mike" because he's too new, but that's just the way it is. He was hired specifically to guide this show (and Wheel), he has to that job in this tough situation.
Also, I'm pretty sure everyone that stands behind that podium knows of the gravitas of the position and wants to make sure they honor Alex. We all loved Alex. But I'm also pretty sure they realize how impressive it will be to have hosting this program on their resume. And this is show biz, every decision everyone makes is pretty much done to pump up their credentials.