Alex Trebek's 'Jeopardy!' hosting advice shared with Ken Jennings night before his death
Ken Jennings is detailing his last conversation with his "Jeopardy!" predecessor Alex Trebek, shortly before the longtime host's death.
Jennings, who now splits hosting duties with actress Mayim Bialik, holds the record for most consecutive games won (74), set in 2004. Trebek died in 2020 after battling pancreatic cancer.
As a guest on the Aug. 23 episode of The Last Podcast on the Left, Jennings opened up about his final chat with Trebek.
“I actually ended up talking to him, (on) what turned out to be the night before the day he passed away, about guest-hosting for him,” said Jennings, adding that he thought the gig would be temporary. “We thought, ‘Oh, he’s going to get better. He’s going to bounce back. He’ll be hosting again.’ I was just going to fill in."
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Trebek hosted the show when it went into syndication in 1984 until his death.
The two talked about the game. "He gave me the impression he always did over the years, which was that he did not want to be the center of attention on ‘Jeopardy!'" Jennings said. "He was never announced as the star of ‘Jeopardy!’ He was always the host of ‘Jeopardy!’ because he thought the game itself and the contestants should be the star.”
It's an attitude Jennings says he models today. "I do the same thing. Like, this should not be about me. This should be about these three people and the clues and that's what people want."
Remembering his time with the late host, Jennings told listeners that Trebek was "more fun" than people might've perceived. "During commercials, he would tell jokes, go into the crowd. He loved to warm up the crowd himself and do little impressions. He was a very light, funny guy."
Though Trebek made hosting look effortless, Jennings said, "It's extremely hard. The game moves so fast. The host is juggling three or four things at once, trying to be a referee and a play-by-play guy and a game announcer and a narrator."
"Final Jeopardy! is particularly hard because there's so much math involved," Jennings continued. "You have a little card full of numbers of permutations of 'What if he gets it wrong, but she gets it right?' and so forth. And you're trying to create drama out of basically what looks like a Sudoku, and it's still the hardest moment of the show for me."
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