How well would Alex Trebek do if he were to play Jeopardy?

[terentii]

There’s at least one interview with him on YouTube, about his early days in Canadian broadcasting and how he came to end up in California. He really is a very intelligent, thoughtful guy.

Back in the '80s or early '90s, he was asked in an interview for ET or some other show just how much of the material on Jeopardy! he would admit to knowing right off the top of his head. He said then the figure was “about 80%,” which is certainly about as well as I could hope to do.

I sent him a letter around the same time because I thought I could call him out on a question about the Wright Brothers. (They were identified as “Hoosiers” on the show, and I was sure they had never lived anywhere other than Dayton, Ohio.) He sent me a really nice letter back saying no one can be right all the time, but they do try.

Turned out I was the one who was wrong. Even though they’re forever identified with Ohio, the Wrights did live for a time in Indiana. :smack:

I didn’t learn this until much later. To this day, I wonder if Alex ever checked on the veracity of my claim.

[kath94]

@TreacherousCretin

Yeah, but that advantage would be cancelled out by his having to constantly run back and forth from MC’s podium to Contestant podium.

I apologize for being extremely silly.

A somewhat more serious question:
If Alex is going to be one of the contestants…
a) which contestant position does he get?
b) who should the other two contestants be?
c) who should moderate?

b) Pat Sajak & Steve Harvey. Alex Trebek for the win!

[suranyi]

@Wheelz

He’d been hosting game shows for 20 years before he started the Jeopardy gig. I imagine he got the job either by auditioning or being selected on the basis of his previous work. He’s always had a kind of scholarly demeanor and I suppose that was the tone they were going for.

He does seem like a pretty smart guy, yes, but then I think I’m a pretty smart guy and I guarantee I would absolutely suck on Jeopardy. It takes a special kind of smarts to do well there, I think. Of course, Trebek surely wouldn’t get flustered or nervous by being on camera, and he knows every kind of strategy there is, so that would help him. I’m betting he’d do OK, maybe not stellar.

I remember him being the host of a game show called “The Wizard of Odds”, before he was on “Jeopardy”. That was a long time ago. Maybe in the 70s.

[terentii]

@suranyi

I remember him being the host of a game show called “The Wizard of Odds”, before he was on “Jeopardy”. That was a long time ago. Maybe in the 70s.

Somewhere on line there’s a video of the new Jeopardy’s debut back in the '80s. Alex was sooooooooo hyper back then, it was like he was hosting “Split Second” or something. (I think I was actually watching the show that evening, as I remembered the FJ answer, “It will be the last day of the 20th century.”)

Maybe it was just nerves from launching a new show, or he just hadn’t shed his old emcee habits yet. But he certainly has mellowed out since then, and I don’t believe it took him all that long to do so.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@HeyHomie

I met him at an audition many years ago, and he was asked, during a Q & A, how he would do if he competed. He answered that he’d hold his own in a senior tournament, but that he’d get smoked in regular play.

He said exactly that in a recent one-paragraph Parade magazine blurb.

[Maserschmidt]

@Happy_Lendervedder

They don’t reuse them.

Henrik Ibsen and Madame Curie would tell you that’s only true in some literal sense.

[oreally]

I think he’s an idiot and a butthead besides. I’d LOVE to see him on the show while the host makes thinly veiled jabs about how far behind he is. Talk about a celeb in desperate need of replacing.