Alex Trebek Eager to Return to Jeopardy! Following COVID-19 Hiatus
This Friday, Jeopardy! will air its final original, pre-COVID-19 episode before entering into an indeterminate, potentially months-long period of reruns. That uncertainty surrounding the duration of the iconic game show’s hiatus is causing worry among fans that the June 12 outing could be the last for host Alex Trebek, who is in the midst of battling Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
However, a Jeopardy! rep assures TVLine, “Alex is looking forward to resuming production as soon as we are able to do so. He’s told us he wants to be one of the first shows back in production.”
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It was back in March that Jeopardy! confirmed it was suspending production (along with the rest of Hollywood) due to the coronavirus pandemic. Luckily, the syndicated phenom had pre-taped enough episodes to last well into spring. (Rebroadcasting the primetime Greatest of All Time tournament during the first two weeks of May helped postpone an all-encore slate.)
Just prior to the COVID shutdown, Trebek told reporters at the Television Critics Association winter press tour that he had no plans to sign off of the long-running quiz show “in the near future.” And in early March, he announced that he had beaten the one-year survival rate for the disease. “The one-year survival rate for Stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients is 18 percent,” he said. “I’m very happy to report that I have just reached that marker.”
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