Michael Davies (born 3 March 1966) is a United States-based British television game shows producer. He is best known for bringing the game show ''

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and ...

'' to

American television Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. , household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, with approximately 114,200,000 American households owning at least one television set as of August 2013. ...

. Since 2014, he has hosted a podcast entitled ''

Men in Blazers Men in Blazers is a New York City-based television show, podcast, and digital brand, founded, operated and hosted by Roger Bennett and Michael Davies covering global soccer and its reception in the United States. The two met at a wedding recept ...

'' alongside journalist Roger Bennett. Since 2021, he has served as the executive producer of the game show ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

'' following

Mike Richards Michael Richards (born 1949) is an American actor best known for playing Cosmo Kramer in ''Seinfeld''. Michael Richards or Mike Richards may also refer to the following people: Arts and entertainment *Mike Richards (television personality) (born ...

departure from the program after various controversies came to light.

Early life

Davies grew up in

Blackheath Blackheath may refer to: Places England *Blackheath, London, England ** Blackheath railway station **Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England *Blackheath, Surrey, England ** Hundred of Blackh ...

, London and attended

Mercersburg Academy Mercersburg Academy (formerly Marshall College and Mercersburg College) is an independent selective college-preparatory boarding & day high school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania in the United States. Founded in 1893, the school enrolls approximat ...

in Pennsylvania, graduating from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. He is the younger brother of opera singer

Rebecca de Pont Davies Rebecca de Pont Davies is a British mezzo-soprano who has performed with English National Opera and Welsh National Opera, and at the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, among others. Davies was born and educated in ...

and screenwriter William Davies.

Career

Early career

In the early 1990s, Davies served as a development associate at

Merv Griffin Enterprises Merv Griffin Enterprises was an American television production company founded by Merv Griffin, in business for 31 years from March 1963 to July 1994. History The company was first established as Milbarn Productions on March 7, 1963, and later ...

Blogger

In 2002 and 2006, Davies wrote a blog about the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

and

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

for

ESPN.com ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN. It is owned by ESPN Internet Ventures, a division of ESPN Inc. History Since launching in April 1995 as ESPNET.SportsZone.com (ESPNET SportsZone), the website has developed numerous sections including ...

Men in Blazers

Beginning in 2011, Davies and co-host and ESPNFC.com writer Roger Bennett, brought the ''

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

to Grantland.com. The weekly podcast includes analysis of recent matches in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

as well as coverage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

and various international fixtures, specifically the

United States men's national soccer team The United States men's national soccer team (USMNT) represents the United States in men's international soccer competitions. The team is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and is a member of FIFA and CONCACAF. The U.S. team ha ...

games. The duo were invited to provide analysis and humorous segments for ESPN live from Rio de Janeiro during the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, especially from Bob Ley's "Panic Room". The duo did a live show from

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

for the 2014 MLS All-Star Game, interviewing the likes of

Clint Dempsey Clinton Drew Dempsey (; born March 9, 1983) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a forward and midfielder. During his career, he played in the Premier League for Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur and in Major League Soccer ...

and

Alex Morgan Alexandra Morgan Carrasco (born Alexandra Patricia Morgan; July 2, 1989) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a striker and captains for San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest division of ...

while raising money for MLS Works and the Wounded Warrior Project. In September 2014, they conducted a

New York City FC New York City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in New York City that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), the highest level of American soccer, as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The club is co-owned ...

exclusive interview with

Frank Lampard Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Everton. He is widely regarded as one of Chelsea’s greatest ever players, and one of the greatest midfielder ...

after Lampard joined NYCFC from Chelsea.

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

announced in April 2014 they had cancelled the Davies-produced program ''

Crowd Goes Wild Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

'', a daily sports talk show from the national sports network

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

. Ahead of the 2014–15 Premier League season,

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

signed Davies and Bennett from

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

for its

English Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

coverage and confirmed that Men in Blazers would have its own half-hour television show on Monday nights at 10 pm EST, starting 22 September 2014. Davies and Bennett host the ''

'' channel on EA Sports Talk Radio on the official 2014 FIFA World Cup video game, with

Andy Goldstein Andy Goldstein is a British television presenter and radio broadcaster currently working for Talksport. He has presented ''Soccer AM'' on Saturday mornings, replacing Tim Lovejoy (having also previously taken over from him as co-host on ''Soccer ...

of TalkSPORT and Darke hosting the only other channel.

Sony Pictures Television

Embassy Row

As president and CEO of

Embassy Row Embassy Row is the informal name for a section of Northwest Washington, D.C. with a high concentration of embassies, diplomatic missions, and diplomatic residences. It spans Massachusetts Avenue N.W. between 18th and 35th street, bounded by ...

, a New York City-based television production company that is a unit of

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainm ...

, he was the executive producer of '' Wife Swap''. He produced '' ESPN's 2 Minute Drill'', VH1's '' World Series of Pop Culture'', CBS's ''

Power of 10 A power of 10 is any of the integer exponentiation, powers of the number 10 (number), ten; in other words, ten multiplication, multiplied by itself a certain number of times (when the power is a positive integer). By definition, the number one is ...

'', and the GSN originals: ''

Chain Reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that syst ...

'', ''

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

'', and GSN's revival of ''

The Newlywed Game ''The Newlywed Game'' is an American television game show that puts newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally create ...

'', as well as the US version of ''

''.

''Jeopardy!''

In 2021, Sony appointed Davies to serve as interim executive producer of ''

'' when

was let go after controversies came to light. On April 14, 2022, Davies announced that he would be taking over the position full-time. So far, under Davies' tenure, he has created daily box scores for each episode, creating a "Second Chance Tournament", creating a new holiday for the show entitled ''JeoparDAY!'', as well as creating daily recaps of the shown known as ''Jeopardy! Highlights''. In August 2022, Davies, along with former ''Jeopardy!'' Clue Crew member Sarah Whitcomb Foss, began hosting a podcast about the game show entitled ''Inside Jeopardy!'' which takes a look behind the scenes from the quiz show like gameplay analysis, behind-the-scenes stories, official announcements, and special interviews.

Personal life

On December 28, 1989, Davies married Selena Richards in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. The couple divorced in 1992. He later married documentary producer Claude Davies until their divorce. He had a daughter, Brea, through his relationship with Selena and three children through his relationship with Claude. Davies splits his time between homes in New York and Los Angeles. He is a fan of

Chelsea F.C. Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football ...

Filmography

Notes

References

External links

*
ESPN blog archive of Michael Davies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Michael 1966 births Living people People from Blackheath, London People from New York City Alumni of the University of Edinburgh English television producers English expatriates in the United States English podcasters Jeopardy!