Alex Trebek Shares Details About Upcoming “Jeopardy!” Signoff

The longtime host is preparing to leave the show amid a battle with pancreatic cancer

Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek before a taping of "Jeopardy! Power Players Week" in 2012 (Kris Connor/Getty)
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Alex Trebek has revealed how long his final Jeopardy! will take when he’s finally ready to leave the show he’s hosted since 1984.

In an interview with Michael Strahan that aired Thursday night, Trebek said he’ll only ask the show’s director to leave him 30 seconds at the end of his last taping to say goodbye to the audience.

“I will say my goodbyes and I will tell people, ‘Don’t ask me who’s going to replace me because I have no say whatsoever. But I’m sure that if you give them the same love and attention and respect that you have shown me … then they will be a success and the show will continue being a success,’” he said. “‘And until we meet again, God bless you and goodbye.’”

Trebek, who announced last March that he’d been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, clearly seems to be thinking that his days of hosting the popular quiz show are coming to an end. The 79-year-old also spoke about how he looks at his life now, and his acceptance of the knowledge that it will likely be over sooner than later.

“I have learned something in the past year and it’s this: We don’t know when we’re going to die,” Trebek said. “Because of the cancer diagnosis, it’s no longer an open-ended life, it’s a closed-ended life because of the terrible … survival rates of pancreatic cancer.”

Despite his declining health, Trebek served as host of the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament, which hits airwaves beginning January 7.

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