Alex Trebek’s final episodes as the host of Jeopardy! will air the week of January 4, 2021, with his final episode coming on January 8, exactly two months after he died from pancreatic cancer. Those five episodes (which were originally scheduled to air around Christmas until being pushed back) were taped over the course of two days in October, and as executive producer Mike Richards told EW, “You’ll watch them and you’ll go, ‘This guy’s as healthy as could be. This is not a sick person at all.’ He had that much willpower.” Richards also shared a powerful story about Trebek’s last day in the studio.
“On the second day of taping, what would end up being his final taping and the final time he was in the studio, I went to [his] door and said, ‘Hey, that was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.’ And he did not like to be complimented. That was kind of staring down the mouth of a great white when you’d do that, because he really didn’t like that,” Richards said. But he felt compelled to compliment an “exhausted” Trebek, who “goes, ‘Thank you.’ He knew what he had done and appreciated the fact that we all knew what he had done. So those last two days are very special, and I’ll never forget them.”
Until next week, please enjoy Alex Trebek’s visit to Sesame Street.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)