{"id":205587,"date":"2019-03-07T02:32:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T07:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=205587"},"modified":"2019-03-07T02:32:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T07:32:55","slug":"jeopardy-host-alex-trebek-says-he-has-pancreatic-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/07\/jeopardy-host-alex-trebek-says-he-has-pancreatic-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Jeopardy!’ host Alex Trebek says he has pancreatic cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Message from Alex Trebek: pic.twitter.com\/LbxcIyeTCF<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) March 6, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 \u201cJeopardy!\u201d host Alex Trebek said he has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer but intends to fight the disease and keep on working.<\/p>\n

In a video posted online Wednesday, the 78-year-old said he was announcing his illness directly to \u201cJeopardy!\u201d fans in keeping with his long-time policy of being \u201copen and transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n

He’s among 50,000 other American who receive such a diagnosis each year, Trebek said. Normally, the \u201cprognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trebek said he plans to beat the disease’s low survival rate with the love and support of family and friends and with prayers from viewers.<\/p>\n

He lightened the difficult message with humour: He said he must beat the odds because his \u201cJeopardy!\u201d contract requires he host the quiz show for three more years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo help me. Keep the faith and we’ll win. We’ll get it done,\u201d he said, his voice calm and steady.<\/p>\n

Trebek, a native of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, has been host of the syndicated quiz show since 1984. He and his wife, Jean Currivan, have two children.<\/p>\n

Ken Jennings, a longtime \u201cJeopardy!\u201d player who took part in the show’s \u201cAll-Star Games\u201d that ended Tuesday, posted a tweet in which he compared Trebek to the late TV journalist Walter Cronkite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve said this before but Alex Trebek is in a way the last Cronkite: authoritative, reassuring TV voice you hear every night, almost to the point of ritual,\u201d Jennings wrote.<\/p>\n

Trebek has gone online before to get out word about his health. In January 2018, he posted a video announcing he’d undergone surgery for blood clots on the brain that followed a fall he’d taken. The show was on hiatus during his recovery.<\/p>\n

In 2007, he was hospitalized for about a week after suffering what was described as a minor heart attack.<\/p>\n

The show has yet to bring in a substitute host for him \u2014 save once, when he and \u201cWheel of Fortune\u201d host Pat Sajak swapped their TV jobs as an April’s Fool prank.<\/p>\n

In a Twitter post, Sajak wrote \u201cthere is no one I know who is stronger and more determined, and I would never bet against him. We, and the entire country, are pulling for you, Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trebek, the smoothest of TV game show hosts, admitted to a case of nerves during rehearsals in January for the show’s first-ever \u201cAll-Star Games,\u201d a team-play tournament that made new demands on its host.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will probably start me drinking again,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

Although Trebek had publicly toyed with the idea of retiring, he instead renewed his deal in 2018 with Sony Pictures Television for three more years, through the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n

In the January set interview with The Associated Press, Trebek discussed his decision to keep going with \u201cJeopardy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not as if I’m overworked \u2014 we tape 46 days a year,\u201d he said. But he noted he’s been working on TV for more than 50 years and was, as he put it, \u201c78-and-a-half now. I’m slowing down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s logical to start thinking about retiring,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I will someday, when I feel I’ve lost enough of my abilities and am messing up a little too much, or it’s no longer any fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it’s still fun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trebek, who holds a philosophy degree from the University of Ottawa, was a TV and radio reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. before moving to the United States. He became a U.S. citizen in 1998.<\/p>\n

He’s won five Emmys as best game show host and received a lifetime achievement award from the TV academy in 2011.<\/p>\n

Created by entertainer-producer Merv Griffin, \u201cJeopardy!\u201d debuted as a NBC daytime show in 1964 with host Art Fleming and ran for more than a decade before going into syndication. The version with Trebek shifted the show largely into early evening slots.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Message from Alex Trebek: pic.twitter.com\/LbxcIyeTCF \u2014 Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) March 6, 2019 LOS ANGELES \u2014 \u201cJeopardy!\u201d host Alex Trebek said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":205594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-lynn-elber","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}