As “Jeopardy!” once again begins taping new episodes, the biggest question the game show has possibly ever faced is, who will replace Alex Trebek? There have been plenty of rumors, but so far no answers.
Alex Trebek’s final episode will air on Christmas Day 2020. The episode was filmed on Oct. 29, just 10 days before his death. The 80-year-old Trebek had hosted the show since its daily syndication began in 1984.
The show’s next run of episodes started filming Monday, and for now the show is relying on interim hosts, including the show’s greatest player of all time, Ken Jennings. The multilingual computer science and English literature grad spent 74 weeks as champion and has been mentioned as a possible full-time successor to Trebek.
Other names that have been mentioned include Anderson Cooper, George Stephanopoulos, LeVar Burton, Ryan Seacrest and CNN legal analyst Laura Coates. A couple of other lesser-known candidates include Los Angeles Kings play-by-play announcer Alex Faust and James Holzhauer, who battled Ken Jennings to be the greatest “Jeopardy!” player of all time.
“Jeopardy!” has said that Ken Jennings will be the first interim guest host and that the show will try other guest hosts before naming a permanent replacement. The first episode featuring Jennings as host will air the week of Jan. 11.
The game show surprised fans by releasing a taped message from Trebek on Thanksgiving, in which the host said, “In spite of what America and the rest of the world is experiencing right now, there are many reasons to be thankful, there are more and more people extending helpful hands to do a kindness to their neighbors, and that’s a good thing. Keep the faith. We’re gonna get through all of this, and we will be a better society because of it.”
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