Ken Jennings, the former Jeopardy! champion and current guest host of the show, has recently revealed details about his final conversation with the late host Alex Trebek. In an interview with Last Podcast on the Left, Jennings shared heartwarming advice Trebek gave before passing away.
Jennings called Trebek to ask about possibly being a guest host on the show as Trebek was undergoing treatment for his cancer. It was then he gave Jennings some inspiration. According to Jennings, “[Trebek] 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.”
Jennings recounted how Trebek always made sure the contestants felt like the most important people in the room. “”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.”
Jennings also spoke about the challenges of hosting Jeopardy!, particularly during Final Jeopardy!
“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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