Please be ready to call your parents after reading this blog because Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek might retire from the show soon.
TMZ reported that in a recent interview, Trebek said he would most likely leave the show when his contract expires in 2020. He also already has two potential replacements in mind: Alex Faust, a sports announcer who does play-by-play announcements for the Kings, and Laura Coates, a legal analyst for CNN.
Personally, I think Trebek’s departure is good news, because I hate the man. I grew up in a Jeopardy!-watching family, in front of the TV nearly every night, and while I love the show itself, I’ve always been in awe of how incredibly, although subtly, rude Trebek can be. I find him to be almost unbearably smug when it comes to contestants’ incorrect or slightly incorrect answers, as if he knows all the answers naturally and not, oh I don’t know, because he has them prewritten out on little cards right in front of him???
He’s called a contestant a loser to her face, pitied those who don’t score big money, mocked contestants for not knowing enough trivia, and has been casually sexist. And when I found out via the Sony emails leak that Trebek almost dramatically quit the show because the mother of a crying child on Jeopardy! Kids asked the host to re-tape an episode after Trebek did nothing to console her, I felt like I could confirm what I always knew to be true: Trebek is kind of an asshole. There’s even a Facebook page called “I Hate Alex Trebek,” with an accurate assessment of the man’s personality:
GOODBYE, ALEX TREBEK!