“Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings recalled one of his last conversations with beloved host Alex Trebek amid the passing of “The Price Is Right” host Bob Barker at age 99 over the weekend.
Alex Trebek died at the age of 80 in November 2020 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Ken, who set the show’s longest winning streak in 2004 with 74 games, was in talks to serve as guest host just hours before Alex died.
Ken Jennings Reveals His Conversation With Late ‘Jeopardy!’ Alex Trebek hosts ‘Hour Before Death’
MEGA
The “Jeopardy! Greatest tournament winner of All Time” recently spoke with the Last on the Left Podcast to describe his final conversation with the late “Jeopardy!” host in comments transcribed by the Daily Mail on Monday.
“I finally talked to him the night before the day he died, about guest hosting for him,” Ken said on the podcast, admitting that they “don’t know” how long it will be until Alex dies.
“We really don’t know. We thought, “Oh, he’s going to get better, he’s going to bounce back, he’s going to host again.” I’ll just fill it in,” Ken reminded. “You know, he gave me the impression he’s always done over the years, which is that he doesn’t want to be the center of attention on Jeopardy!”
“He was never announced as a Jeopardy star! – he always hosts Jeopardy! because he thinks the game itself and the contestants should be the stars,” he added.
Ken Opens Up About Guest Hosting For Alex Trebek Last Year
MEGA
This isn’t the first time the former Chaser on “The Chase” has opened up about her last conversation with Alex Trebek. In October 2022, Ken sat down with Vulture to talk about how he was called into the studio to practice and guest host several games. He noted that Alex’s voice was “noticeably weaker” than in the past, indicating that something was wrong.
“I was scheduled to go into the studio to practice for some games. Even if Alex bounces back like before, he wants someone to take his place for a while,” Ken said at the time. “A producer called in, and his voice was weaker than we’d ever heard on air, which really surprised me at first. It was a difficult moment. But once you get over that timbre, he’s still Alex.”
MEGA
“The thing that sticks with me is that he thanked me for coming to fill his position. That just broke me,” he continued. “I said, ‘Alex, are you kidding? We should be thanking you. I’ll take a bullet for you, Alex. I’d be happy to help.’ Of course, I didn’t know that he would be gone in 36 hours.”
While fans were happy to see Ken replace Alex Trebek with “The Big Bang Theory” alum Mayim Bialik, Ken revealed that it was actually Alex’s idea to have Ken fill in as guest host. In September 2022, Ken recalled his conversation with Alex to the Washington Post. “He said, ‘Hey, we’ve talked, and if you’re serious about retiring from Jeopardy!, do you want to come on? Like, move to the front office?’ That’s good because I already miss that show.”
Ken Jennings Reveals the Hardest Part of Hosting ‘Jeopardy!’
MEGA
In a June 2023 interview with the New Yorker to promote his new book, “100 Places To See After You Die,” Ken revealed what he feels is the hardest part of hosting the hit game show.
“It’s the speed,” Ken explained. “It’s hard to overestimate how moving it is and what mechanism the host of the sixty one time show has to do: read the instructions perfectly, contact the right contestants, decide their answers correctly. And then it all happened again.”
“It’s really hard work, and Alex makes it look easy,” he continued. “So it’s a no-win thing—the only person we’ve seen do it look so confident and graceful for thirty-seven years, and we all love her.”
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
