Alex Trebek has his role as Danger! host seriously, but that does not mean he did not laugh.
Brad Rutter, one of the show’s biggest winners, recalled the late host’s infamous scam at the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions. He reminds himself of the finale of Trebek Danger! the program airs Friday – two months after the iconic host died of pancreatic cancer.
“We were so nervous we were all pale as a ghost,” said Rutter, now a star of ABC’s games show The chase, said in an interview with radio station 98.1 WOGL in Philadelphia.
Rutter and his opponents Ken Jennings and Jerome Vered felt like reducing the tension, and one of them said they should enter the competition without pants.
It was just a silly joke they came from, not realizing that “our microphones were alive and Alex heard us,” Rutter said.
When show announcer Johnny Gilbert made his famous introduction to Trebek and called him to introduce, the host laughed with the contestants and ‘pulled out without a pair of pants on’, Rutter recalls.
The always brave Trebek otherwise wore a suit, which makes for a funny visual version. After the laughter, the host returned behind the stage to get dressed before continuing.
Rutter talked about how participants in the program, which Trebek has hosted for nearly 37 years, ‘may not speak’, as it is a competition. But, “I was lucky enough to be on the show so often,” and won nearly $ 5 million and a spot in Jeopardy! ‘S Hall of Fame, “that I got to know Alex a little.”
He said he saw the sense of humor “even more personally than you would see on the show when he had that personal connection to Trebek.”
Trebek lost his cancer battle in November at the age of 80. He worked to the end and recorded his last shows on October 29th. He died ten days later.
Initially, the plan was to continue broadcasting Trebek’s deliveries, with the last one to be aired on December 25th. However, they changed the plan and instead aired a few shows – “Alex’s Favorite Episodes Around the World” – and his latest episode airs Friday.
No successor has been announced, but some hosts are in the queue. Jennings, who holds the record for most wins on the program, will perform – despite a bad press lately. His episodes are scheduled to air from January 11th.
It was announced this week that Katie Couric will also be hosting for a week.
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