‘Jeopardy!’ Host Alex Trebek Gives Health Update As He Reveals How He’ll End Game Show Tenure – TCA

Peter White

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek gave a health update and revealed how he plans to end his 35-year run on the syndicated game show.

Trebek was at the TCA winter press tour to promote the ABC special Jeopardy!: The Greatest of All Time alongside Jeopardy! champs James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

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Trebek, who has undergone several rounds of chemotherapy since being diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in March, admitted that “some days are better than others.”

“My resistance is lower because of the treatments I’ve been having, and as you can tell I’ve got the cold that’s going around, but this is the second time I’ve had it in the last month and a half,” he said. “They’ve got me off one of my chemo drugs, which was killing me, and I won’t know until tomorrow when I go in for some tests and then maybe a week or so when I know how things stand. I have good days and bad days.”

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The host added that while he doesn’t foresee saying a final goodbye to Jeopardy! “in the near future,” he already has figured out how he will go out. He will ask the director to give him 30 seconds at the end of his final show, but said that he will do it “on a whim.”

The first night of Jeopardy!: The Greatest of All Time was the greatest on Tuesday in the ratings, scoring 14.37 million viewers and a 2.4 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, dominating a night where the broadcast networks began returning to regular programming after a holiday slumber. The faceoff of Jeopardy! champs Holzhauer, Jennings and Rutter kicked off their best-of-three showdown for a $1 million prize. The special, which gave ABC the nightly win overall in the demo, continues tonight and Thursday, with Friday and next week in the works if necessary.

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