Jeopardy! is officially returning with all-new episodes in September, which is great news for fans of the beloved quiz show and anyone desperately hoping for the slightest sense of normalcy. The 37th season will start airing on September 14 and with Alex Trebek reminding contestants to answer in the form of a question. Like most of America, the beloved host has been stuck at home, so he’s particularly excited for a change of scenery when he returns to his old stomping grounds.
“I feel good, and I feel excited because once again JEOPARDY! has demonstrated that it’s at the forefront of television programming,” Trebek said in a statement. “I believe we are the first quiz show to come back on the air in the COVID-19 era. On a personal level, I’m excited because it gets me out of the house. It gives me something to do on a regular basis, and I was missing that.”
Naturally, Trebek’s return is a welcomed and encouraging piece of news. The host has been making headlines for his ongoing cancer battle, which led to a bleak moment in late July when Trebek was reported as saying that he would stop his experimental cancer treatment if he wasn’t seeing results. Fearing the worst, fans reached out with concern that Trebek was losing his fight with Stage IV pancreatic cancer, and he quickly set the record straight that he was going through a rough patch when he made those remarks.
“That quote from the book was written BEFORE my current regimen, and I was going through some bad times.” Trebek wrote in a statement posted to the Jeopardy! Twitter account. “My current numbers are very good, but we will have to be patient with this new immunotherapy program that I am on. But, if it were to stop being successful, I would return to my previous chemo treatment — NOT stop all treatment. I apologize for any confusion, and want everyone to know that I am optimisit about my current plan, and thank them for their concerns.”