CBS Julie Chen and Alex Trebek pose for a photograph on the set of The Talk
Emmy-winning game show host Alex Trebek died Sunday, November 8 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old and had hosted Jeopardy since 1984.
In a beautiful Instagram post, Big Brother host Julie Chen Moonves offered some heartfelt words of remembrance for the host.
Julie Chen Moonves Calls Alex Trebek ‘A True Legend’
From one TV host to another, Chen Moonves writes that Trebek is a “true legend” of the job. Her caption accompanied a photo of the two of them together when Trebek appeared on The Talk in 2015.
“Alex Trebek will live on forever in our hearts, he is a fixture of television history and a true legend,” wrote Chen Moonves. “Always a Class Act, and a prototype of Perfection when it comes to being a Host. May he Rest In Peace.”
When he appeared on the show originally, Chen Moonves wrote on Twitter, “What is… Awesome? #Jeopardy host Alex Trebek joined us for #TheTalk1000 today!”
Trebek is Survived by his Wife and Three Children
Trebek is survived by his wife Jean Currivan and his three children, Matthew, Emily, and Nicki. Trebek and Currivan were married in 1990; they welcomed Matthew in late 1990 and Emily in 1993. Nicki is Trebek’s daughter from his marriage to Elaine Callei from 1974 to 1981.
Trebek began hosting Jeopardy in 1984 and has become an icon of TV game shows. In that time, he won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host six times; he won the Daytime Emmy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
In March 2019, he announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, vowing to fight, and to continue hosting Jeopardy as long as he was able.
“Now, normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working and with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease,” said Trebek in his announcement. “Truth told, I have to because under the terms of my contract I have to host Jeopardy for three more years. So help me, keep the faith and we’ll win. We’ll get it done.”
In a 2018 interview with Vulture, Trebek said that as the host of Jeopardy, the most important thing to remember was that he was not the star of the show.
“You have to set your ego aside. The stars of the show are the contestants and the game itself. That’s why I’ve always insisted that I be introduced as the host and not the star. And if you want to be a good host, you have to figure a way to get the contestants to — as in the old television commercial about the military — ‘be all you can be.’ Because if they do well, the show does well. And if the show does well, by association I do well,” said Trebek.
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