Earlier this month, iconic Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek passed away at the age of 80 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. Before his death, however, the game show legend recorded a Thanksgiving message to share with America.
"Happy Thanksgiving ladies and gentleman. You know, in spite of what America and the rest of the world are experiencing right now there are many reasons to be thankful," he said in the message, which will air during Thursday's episode of Jeopardy! "There are more and more people extending helping hands to do a kindness to their neighbors, and that’s a good thing. Keep the faith. We’re going to get through all of this and we’re going to be a better sodality because of it."
The touching message comes just as Trebek was left off the nominees list for the 2021 Grammy Awards, even though the audio version of his memoir Alex Trebek-The Answer I... got a nomination for Best Spoken Word Album. Ken Jennings, a long-standing guest of Jeopardy! and one of the narrators of the book, received the nomination instead. In a post on Twitter, Jennings made it clear that it should be "Alex's Grammy nomination," as he wrote the book and read a good chunk of the audiobook, too.
Just before his death, Trebek recorded 35 episodes of Jeopardy!, producers of the show previously revealed. There's still more Trebek-hosted episodes expected to air up until Christmas, but Sony Pictures Television recently revealed that when new episodes enter production there will instead be guest hosts.
The first guest host will be the aforementioned Jennings, who won an impressive 74 straight games back in 2004. Production is set to resume on Monday, Nov. 30, and the show's executive producer Mike Richards has indicated that the show will continue for the foreseeable future.
