Though Alex Trebek Says He's 'Nearing The End' Of His Life, He Is Determined To Continue On

Jan 27, 2020 by apost team

Game shows are incredibly popular. People delight in the chance to sit down and match wits with others. For half an hour, they are transported to a completely different world. One particularly popular and beloved game show has graced American television sets over the decades.

Jeopardy! lets people follow along with a series of questions on almost any topic imaginable. People can show off how much they know about everything from football to modern ballet. At the heart of the show is one man.

Alex Trebek has been there right from the "reboot". He's a restrained presence with a memorable and soothing voice. Now, the adored host has startled and saddened audiences all over the globe with an announcement of a terminal illness.

Jeopardy! first came to the attention of the American public way back in 1964. At the time, it was a revolutionary show with a jingle that lodged in viewers' heads and stayed there. Written by legendary producer Merv Griffin, he was also the show's host. The show ran on NBC for over a decade, according to The Atlantic.

At the time, it had a long and happy following. When it went off the air in the late nineteen seventies, efforts were made to bring it back. For those involved, the question was finding the right person to stand up and speak to viewers and anxious contestants. After a long search, they settled on one man.

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Alex Trebek was born in Ontario in 1940. From an early age, he wanted to be part of the world of television. It was this goal that led him to the field of broadcast news. He caught the attention of the Canadian world with his work on several kinds of Canadian shows.

It was then that he decided that it was time to expand his horizons and find a new outlet for his talents. Canada was a great venue for his talent but he wanted something more. He wanted a larger audience and a chance to speak out even more. This is one of many reasons why he decided it was time to look south, says Biography.

America proved to be the perfect showcase for his on screen skills in the nineteen seventies. NBC officials quickly realized they had a gem on their hands. They hired him to host a new game show.

Over the next few years, his voice was the voice many Americans came to rely on as they listened to contestants try their luck at varied types of questions. It was this quality that attracted the producers of Jeopardy! who noticed he was really good at his job. He was hired and the rest was history.

Over the next thirty years, Alex Trebek and Jeopardy! were a natural fit. In a sense, he became the figure people could always turn to find out information and be assured it was reliable and accurate. He was America's dad. He was the person with the answers.

When someone else didn't know them, he gently corrected them. Unfortunately, his tenure as the person we all know and love may be about to come to an end. There may be a Jeopardy! but it may have to on without him.

Fans were saddened to hear Trebek announce in March of 2019 that he was battling stage four pancreatic cancer. This cancer, as he points out to his many fans, is one form of cancer that strikes 50,000 Americans every single year. He's now one of them.

Like many others, Trebek is determined to beat it, but the odds are not in his favor. He asked fans to keep him their prayers and help him in his journey. While he's aware that the odds of survival aren't particularly high, he knows that it is possible to work with modern medicine and sit down and fight it, wrote Biography.

Those who love Jeopardy! know this isn't the first time the host has battled health issues. In 2018 he took a temporary leave of absence in order to get blood clots removed from his brain. The operation was successful and he was right back on stage a short time later, Biography mentions

Unfortunately, this time it's just a little different. He's facing all kinds of physical issues. Weight loss, nausea, and fatigue have made it hard for him to do his best after the new season started in September.

He's back to chemo and hoping it works. It if can't, he knows the prognosis in the long term for someone with this kind of cancer is not on his side. And yet he's still determined to stand for fans. After all, as he points out, he has a three-year contract in place, The Tampa Bay Times reports.

He's going to play it by ear and see what happens. He's willing to trust in science. It has made it just a little harder to say some of the words. Still, he's not afraid of dying. He's lived a long and satisfying life doing something he really loves for fans all over the globe.

“I’m not afraid of dying,” he told CTV. “I’ve lived a good life, a full life, and I’m nearing the end of that life...if it happens, why should I be afraid that?”

If this story touched your heart as much as it did ours, think about spreading the news. Let Alex Trebek and other fans know how much you love his work.