Champion contestant Ken Jennings will be the first to guest host 'Jeopardy!' following death of long-time host Alex Trebek
- "Jeopardy!" champion Ken Jennings is set to guest host the game show following the death of long-time host Alex Trebek.
- Trebek died on November 8 following a battle with pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed with Stage 4 of the disease in March 2019. He was 80.
- The show announced that it will resume production at the end of November "with a series of interim guest hosts from the 'Jeopardy!' family."
- "There will only ever be one Alex Trebek, but I'm honored to be helping 'Jeopardy!' out with this in January," Jennings wrote on Twitter.
- "Jeopardy!" films episodes of the show months in advance, and Trebek taped his final episode at the end of October, a little over a week before he died. His last episode will posthumously air on Christmas Day.
Champion contestant Ken Jennings is set to host the first new episodes of "Jeopardy!" following the death of long-time host Alex Trebek.
Jennings is among other to-be-announced guest hosts who will host the show in Trebek's absence. The show announced that it will resume production at the end of November "with a series of interim guest hosts from the 'Jeopardy!' family."
"There will only ever be one Alex Trebek, but I'm honored to be helping 'Jeopardy!' out with this in January," Jennings wrote on Twitter.
Trebek died on November 8, following a battle with pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed with Stage 4 of the disease in March 2019. He was 80.
Trebek took over the show when it was revived in 1984. He went on to host 37 seasons of the popular game show. The long-time game show host gave audiences health updates during episodes, thanking fans and contestants for their well wishes.
During an episode that aired in November of last year, Trebek got choked up after a contestant wrote "We love you, Alex" as his response in Final Jeopardy.
In lieu of an answer to the Final Jeopardy question, contestant Dhruv Gaur, a college student at Brown University, wrote "We love you, Alex," with "love" being shown as a heart. Watchers felt the same way as Trebek, and the hashtag #WeLoveYouAlex trended on Twitter soon after.
Despite his diagnosis, Trebek told reporters at the Television Critics Association in January that he would only step away from the show after taping his final episode.
"I made this decision a long time ago. What I would do, it would be the same as when I shaved my mustache. I would do it on a whim," Trebek said. "On that particular day, I will speak to Harry [Friedman, executive producer], and I will speak to Clay [Jacobsen], our director, and tell them, 'Give me 30 seconds at the end of the program. That's all I need to say goodbye, because it's going to be the last show.'"
"Jeopardy!" films episodes of the show months in advance, and Trebek taped his final episode at the end of October, a little over a week before he died. His last episode will posthumously air on Christmas Day.