Alex Trebek was dedicated to his work until the last minute.
The star was the host of “Jeopardy!” for more than 30 years, but he died of pancreatic cancer in November at the age of 80.
As is typical of television, Trebek has several episodes of “Jeopardy!” Verfilm. beforehand and leave the program with content in which Trebek is at the helm, some time after his death.
The final installments of the program with Trebek will be broadcast this week before champion Ken Jennings takes over as interim host.
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Before the last week of deliveries in Trebek, “Jeopardy!” executive producer Mike Richards appears in the show “Today” and praises his late colleague.
Alex Trebek’s latest installments of ‘Jeopardy!’ will be broadcast this week. (Photo by Santiago Felipe / Getty Images)
“He was an absolute fighter,” Richards stormed. “What he could do by putting himself back on the set to record those last installments … was Herculean.”
The last deliveries were recorded 11 days after Trebek was operated on, and just ten days before he died.
Richards said the star “had a lot of pain” during the recording, but made sure fans would not find any of it.
“He’s strong, he sounds great, he’s funny and he was amazing,” the executive said.
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It was also revealed that Richards advised Trebek not to film the episodes because he did not feel well. However, the star insisted.
‘The week before we recorded the episodes, he was in the hospital – this guy was amazing – he called me and he said’ Mike, I’m fine, I’ll record the tape, I could eat Jell-o today, ” remember the producer. “And I said, ‘Alex, that’s great, but that does not mean you’ll be ready to present five episodes of a game show,’ which is a lot of effort.”
“Do not cancel, I will be there,” Trebek told Richards.
Richards also revealed that Trebek presented a special message on the set that no one expected.
“He comes out and gives this wonderful speech about the difficult times we are in and the importance of us coming together as a country, as a community, humanity, and being there for each other,” he said.
Richards admitted that he and the crew “had chills” after hearing the star’s message.
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“There are specific moments in ‘Jeopardy!’ “if you clap your hands and then there are moments when you are silent – usually in his monologue, he would come out, make a statement and then go to the categories,” the Hollywood management explained. “There are not many people in the studio because of COVID, and we all burst out in applause. You do not see it on camera, but when he goes to the categories, he sees us start applauding and he looks at us quite a bit. [like] “What are you guys doing?” and we were so moved that we had to rejoice. ‘
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No permanent successor was nominated and although Richards explained that Trebek “mentioned a few names”, he largely wanted to stay out of the process.