Here’s some more thoughts on Jeopardy for my friends and interested Westchester readers. The original plan and schedule for the ‘Final Shows” with Alex Trebek, thankfully, has been changed.
The last five shows of Jeopardy with Alex were set to run next week, with the final show set for Christmas. I wondered why anyone would want to watch this emotional, final show, while celebrating Christmas Day.
The new schedule gives us two weeks of Alex’s greatest hits, for Christmas week and the week leading up the New Year’s Day, 2021. Then on January 4, all of us can enjoy the last five episodes, with the last show scheduled for January 8.
We received the following letter from James Vespe from Mamaroneck, about his Jeopardy experience.
“WHO IS ALEC? (name misspelled on purpose)
In the pre-Internet days of the early 1970s, when the only way to hear out-of-town radio stations was to fiddle with the dial late at night, my favourite (their editor added the u) station was CBL-740 Toronto and its 1 a.m. Ontario weather reports.
I can still hear Leon Mangoff rattling off the nightly lows in remote locations like Rainy Lake, Pickle Lake, Atikokan and Kenora. It took a little while to translate Celsius to Fahrenheit, unless the low was minus 40. But before signing off and playing O Canada and God Save the Queen, Mr. Mangoff would encourage listeners to tune in at 5:07 (or was it 5:08?) for a program hosted by Alec (not Alex) Trebek.
Twenty years later, I was a contestant on Jeopardy! and during the preshow interview, where contestant co-ordinators would struggle to find interesting tidbits for Mr. Trebek’s brief chats, I mentioned hearing his name on the late-night broadcasts.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” I was told, “Alex will get a kick out of that … but save that for your second show.” Alas, the wrong answer in Final Jeopardy! ended my tenure.
It would have been fun to recite the names of obscure Ontario hamlets – and probably be the only contestant to begin his response with, “Well, Alec …” Jim Vespe Mamaroneck.
So on January 8, 2021, Jeopardy will have a new host. On a temporary basis, that host will be Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy GOAT. I have written previously that it will be difficult for Jennings, or anyone, to replace Alex.
But Jennings has been attacked before we see his first show as host. That is because he posted some really stupid comments, and attempts at jokes, in 2014 and 2015.
The NY Post’s Andrea Peyser wrote that she believes Jennings “will never live up to the legacy of Alex Trebek. We’ve lost an icon. And we’re getting a creep,” writes Peyser, describing two Tweets that Jennings made. One in 2014 was a dark joke about a disabled person, and the other in 2015 was another joke that drew no laughter about a Star Wars fan who died of cancer.
I can say with certainty that Ken Jennings has no sense of humor, and at the time had no idea of the backlash he would receive and that he was already in the public spotlight and needed to be careful about his words, and tweets.
But that should not prohibit him from attempting to host Jeopardy. The one person whose opinion matters is Alex Trebek. And from what I can surmise, based on the fact that Ken was a Jeopardy consultant in 2020, and that Ken revered Alex and respects the legacy for the show that he will now attempt to set out to continue.
Let’s give Ken a chance please. And I would ask Andrea Peyser, or anyone angry at Ken, if not Ken then who? –email us at dmurphy@risingmediagroup.com
