There’s been a slight change in plans on Jeopardy!
After the death of legendary host Alex Trebek on Nov. 8, the show had announced his final show, which he taped in October, would be aired on Christmas Day.
The program’s sudden announcement of a new course of programming has changed that.
Here’s when Alex Trebek’s final game will air.
Alex Trebek’s death from pancreatic cancer
Trebek, 80, died on Nov. 8 from complications of pancreatic cancer. The program that he made famous for nearly four decades, Jeopardy!, issued a statement at that time saying, “Jeopardy is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends.”
The beloved late host made his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis public in March 2019. In order to stay ahead of the press and rumors about his health, he continued to provide updates on his prognosis.
The father of three spoke in his 2020 memoir, The Answer Is…, about the burden of being the face of pancreatic cancer and the difficulty of giving up some of his privacy.
“There are moments when I have some regrets about having gone public with my diagnosis. There are a lot of expectations, a lot of people looking to me for reassurance.”
‘Jeopardy!’ announced guest hosts for the show
After Trebek’s death, his final televised game had been announced for Christmas Day.
This week, however, Jeopardy! made some changes to the lineup.
“We will resume production on 11/30 with a series of interim guest hosts from the Jeopardy! family – starting with Ken Jennings. Additional guest hosts to be announced,” the show’s tweet read.
It will be interesting to see if the other guest hosts “from the Jeopardy! family” will be Ken Jennings’ fellow Greatest of All Time contestants, James Holzhauer or Brad Rutter.
Whoever ends up being named the show’s permanent host, their predecessor made it clear that he didn’t want the show to end with his death.
As the Canadian-born Trebek said in his memoir, “You could replace me as the host of the show with anybody and it would likely be just as popular. Hell, after thirty-six years with me, it might even be more popular.”
And Trebek’s last game is now in January
Jennings, in response to the honor of being chosen as the show’s first guest host, tweeted “There will only ever be one Alex Trebek, but I’m honored to be helping Jeopardy! out with this in January.”
The champ, who won 74 games on Jeopardy! in 2004, was named Consulting Producer on the show when it returned in September from its coronavirus (COVID-19) hiatus. Many fans figured it was the show’s way of naturally working Jennings in as its eventual permanent host.
Jennings’ guest hosting shows will air starting on Jan. 11.
As for Trebek’s final Jeopardy! game, The Hollywood Reporter stated that instead of Christmas Day, the program decided to air his 10 greatest shows from Dec. 21 through Dec. 28.
His final episodes will be shown beginning the week of Jan. 4.
It will be hard to watch Alex Trebek in the last games of his career, but it will also be exciting to see the game that he made into a brand carry on.
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