In 35 years of hosting Jeopardy, Alex Trebek has a perfect attendance record and hasn’t missed a taping of the show since taking over as host.
Even though the 79-year-old recently admitted he’s “nearing the end” of his life due to his age and his stage-4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, he has no plans to start missing Jeopardy tapings now, according to TMZ.
Episodes of the popular game show are taped 2.5 months in advance, and as of now, they have shows which are set to air well into December. That number will grow this week as Trebek is expected to tape a pair of shows even though his chemotherapy treatments have caused him to develop sores around his mouth, making it hard to speak.
The appearance of the sores has made Trebek critical of his own performance on show, especially because he is somewhat of a perfectionist and “little missteps that are common on other shows bother him,” TMZ’s sources say.
“I’m sure there are observant members of the television audience that notice also, but they’re forgiving,” Trebek told CTV, referring to the chemotherapy symptoms. “But, there will come a point when they (fans and producers) will no longer be able to say, ‘It’s OK.’”
However, if the sores do cause him to misspeak or have trouble with a sentence, “a simple re-shoot of the line is all that’s needed.”
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