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Today, July 22, 2020, is Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek’s 80th birthday and viewers and contestants all over the world are reaching out to the game show host. Former champions including the sometimes infamous Jeopardy James sent in a video to wish Trebek a happy birthday.
Trebek has been in the headlines recently due to the release of his all-new memoir titled The Answer Is…. Reflections on My Life as well as Jeopardy!’s decision to reach into the vault for the first time and air older episodes of the show including the first-ever episode hosted by Trebek.
The 80-year-old celebrated 36 years with Jeopardy! in September 2019, will soon mark two years of surviving with his cancer diagnosis, and he now has yet another reason to celebrate: his former contestants reached out to him in a special video for his birthday.
Watch: Jeopardy James & Other Former Champions Wish Alex Happy Birthday
The official Twitter account for Jeopardy! tweeted out the video with the caption, “for he’s a jolly good fellow! Happy Birthday, Alex! #Happy80thAlex.”
The video included champions from the past few years of Jeopardy! including “Jeopardy!” James Holzhauer, Emma Boettcher and more.
The contestant who previously made headlines when he didn’t know the answer to Final Jeopardy and instead wrote “What is we [love] you Alex,” on his answer board was also featured in the video.
“Happy Birthday, Alex,” he said. “We love you!”
Other contestants took the time to say they were looking forward to celebrating more years of Trebek’s life.
“Looking forward to celebrating 80 more,” Holzhauer said. Another contestant remarked they were looking forward to “80 more wonderful years” with the host.
The video ended with a new clip of Trebek himself.
“I wanna thank you for the many birthday wishes,” he said. “You really know how to make a guy feel special.”
Fans and Jeopardy! contestants and champions continued to use the hashtag #Happy80thAlex to celebrate his birthday.
Trebek Recently Released a Memoir
Trebek told Good Morning America that he wanted to write his own memoir so he could be in control of his own story and let people know that there’s much more to him than can be seen on half-hour segments of Jeopardy!.
“I curse more than I think I do,” he said as an example. “It’s a failing, but hey, I allow myself certain things.”
When Jeopardy! returns to tape new episodes, the show will film five shows a day, two days a week with a break in between the episodes. Trebek said that if that’s too much for him, they will cut it back to possibly filming only four episodes a day instead.
When it comes to who might replace him on the show after he leaves, he doesn’t have a serious answer for that.
“I joke with the audience all the time and I say, ‘Betty White,’ because they want somebody younger, somebody funnier,” he said. “Betty and I have been friends for a long, long time.”
Trebek said recently that he plans to stop treatment if his current course is unsuccessful.
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