Videos: Alex Trebek Has a Fun, Loose “Jeopardy!” Week
I’m not exactly sure what was causing Alex Trebek to be a bit looser during the second half of this taping day, but on Thursday and Friday’s episodes of Jeopardy! he was having a bit more fun than usual. On Thursday, challenger Laura Sikes Jambon was using her contestant interview to tell a story about how her pygmy goat enjoyed eating odd things, like portions of her cat. She then noted the goat eventually died after eating a bag of concrete mix. Alex wasn’t willing to have any serious part in the discussion. The contestant’s reaction to him and Trebek’s response plus his dealings with the champion’s interview are very funny. And then on the next episode, someone in production thought it would be a good idea to give Alex a bullhorn to demonstrate a clue for the category “Bull!” They were correct. Enjoy the videos below.
Alex and Laura discuss the finer points of Quikrete:
Alex delivers a clue loud and clear:
Nice to see Alex show off his fun side. I wish he’d do that more often!
Too much wine?
Yeah I wish he would do things like this more often.
Of course, “the week” was really just one day. I think the first three games had bizarrely low scores (due in large part to some really tough boards) and there were more missteps (game mistakes, redubbing, etc) than usual, so before lunch it was a little tense on set. Moreover, Alex was still recovering from his foot injury, so he wasn’t in top physical form.
After lunch, though, we were all ready to have some fun. At least I was! Right before we went on for the fourth show of the day, Robert, Maggie, and I were hollering across the set about how much we all loved Solomon Burke, so the awesome sound guy began playing one of his soul tunes for us. Maggie started dancing with the cameraman, and as I danced my way on stage, the mood felt lightened.
And I’ve been asked this by others, but to clarify–Alex wasn’t drunk at all, unless he’s a real sneak. He smelled pleasantly of Canada and wealth, but not booze. He did say during our FJ break that ours was such a fun game he wanted to stop there. Maybe he was feeling a little under the weather with his injury.
My only wish is that I’d have stayed five minutes longer to see the bullhorn. Lordy Lou, it would’ve been a sight.
Thanks for posting, Laura. Glad to hear your insight on the day. I highly doubt he was drinking anything. It’s a common game show urban legend that is certainly untrue that Alex was under the influence during the final episode of a 70s game show he was on and so people like to apply that elsewhere. I’m pretty sure Alex is a loose, fun guy at heart but applies a more serious demeanor to the program, since it is more seriously-oriented most times. My experiences with him were pretty limited because of S&P and all that but I enjoyed the time I spent with him.
Chad & Laura,
Let me clear something up. I never assumed Alex was drunk, rather I just through the old High Rollers line just for humor since Alex was the one who through it out there & I remembered it.
Gutsy daily double there, Laura! I knew it was “The Natural”, too! You made the champ nervous, way to go!
I watched that Friday’s episode of Jeopardy! I went along with Alex as I did my own version of a bullhorn as I said out loud “WHAT IS A BULLHORN!”. His fun and loose side reminded me of when Alex Trebek was hosting HIGH ROLLERS if you remember it well!
He’s starting to lose it. On yesterday’s show (July 16), he gave away the answer by accident. It had to do with a literary character beginning with “A”. The clue had something to do with one of the main characters of “The Return of the King”. Alex thought the contestant had said “Aragorn”, was was the correct response. However, she actually said “Aragon”, which was one letter short. It’s not too often nowadays something like that is kept in the show.