Alex Trebek took on the role of Danger! serious host, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t laugh.
Brad Rutter, one of the program’s biggest winners, recalled the late presenter’s infamous joke during the 2005 “Ultimate Tournament of Champions”. He recalled it as the Trebek final Danger! The program will air on Friday – two months after the iconic game show host died of pancreatic cancer.
“We were so nervous, we were all pale as a ghost,” Rutter, now a star on ABC’s game show The hunt, said in an interview with the Philadelphia 98.1 WOGL radio station.
To “cut the tension”, they felt Rutter and his opponents Ken Jennings and Jerome Vered, one of them joked that they should participate in the competition without pants.
It was just a silly joke that they went on, without realizing “that our microphones were live and Alex heard us,” said Rutter.
So, when presenter Johnny Gilbert made his famous introduction to Trebek, calling him to the set, the presenter laughed with the contestants and “went out without pants”, remembers Rutter.
The always elegant Trebek wore a suit, which made the look funny. After the laughter, the host went backstage to finish dressing before continuing.
Rutter spoke about how the participants in the program, which Trebek has hosted for almost 37 years, “are not allowed to say much” because it is a competition. However, “I was lucky to be on the show so often”, winning almost $ 5 million and a seat in the Jeopardy Hall of Fame! “, That I met Alex a little”.
He said that having that personal connection with Trebek, he was able to see his sense of humor “even more personally than you would see on the show”.
Trebek lost his battle with cancer in November, aged 80. He worked until the end, recording his last shows on October 29th. He died 10 days later.
Initially, the program planned to continue showing Trebek episodes, with the latter airing on December 25. However, they changed the plan, instead of airing some specials – “Alex’s favorite episodes from around the world” – and their final episode will air on Friday.
No successors have been announced, but some guest hosts are lined up. Jennings, who holds the record for most wins on the show, will step on the scene – despite some bad news recently. Their episodes are scheduled to air on January 11th.
It was announced this week that Katie Couric will also be the guest host for a week.
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