| NET WORTH: | $70 Million |
|---|---|
| Source of Wealth: | Game show Host, Television personality |
| Born: | July 22, 1940 |
| Died: | November 8, 2020 |
| Age: | 80 |
| Spouse: | Jean Currivan-Trebek |
| Children: | 3 |
| Birth Name: | George Alexander Trebek |
| Height: | 5ft. 8in. (1.73m) |
George Alexander Trebek is known as the host of the American television game show "Jeopardy!". Since the revival of the show, Trebek has been the host for 37 seasons, up until his passing in 2020 due to pancreatic cancer. For hosting the American television game show Jeopardy!, he received seven times the Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding game Show Host.
Early Life
Trebek was born on July 22, 1940, in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada with his parents, George Edward Trebek and Lucille Marie Legacé. When he was 13, he had his first job as a bellhop at the hotel where his father worked as a chef. He attended high school in Sudbury High School, and then attended college at University of Ottawa where he graduated in 1961 with a degree of philosophy. While he was a university student, he joined the English Debating Society, and was having an interest in a career in broadcast news.
Career
Broadcasting career
Trebek began working at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation while he completes his degree. He stated "I went to school in the mornings, and worked at nights; I did everything, at one time replacing every announcer in every possible job". In 1963, he had his first hosting job on a Canadian music program called Music Hop.
He hosted some high school quiz show in 1996, called Reach for the Top, and hosted for the CBC from year 1976 to 1970, introducing classical music programs including the performances of Glenn Gould. In spring of 1969, he started hosting a weekend afternoon game show, the "Strategy", and "I'm Here Til 9", a local morning drive radio show, from year 1971 until the end of 1972.
Game show career
Trebek hosted the mew game show "The Wizard of Odds" in 1973, when he moved to the United States and worked for NBC. He also hosted the popular Merril Heatter-Bob Quigley game show "High Rollers", the short-lived CBS game show "Double Dare", and the second season of "The $128,000 Questions".
Trebek also made multiple guest appearances either as a panelist or a player on the shows including on a special week of NBC's "Card Sharks" in 1980 where he competed with various celebrities and won the tournament, the NBC game show "The Magnificent Marble Machine" in 1975, the NBC word game "To Say the Least" in 1978, and more.
In 1980, after the television game show "High Rollers" was cancelled, Trebek proceed to host "Battlestars" for NBC. Trebek started hosting Jeopardy! in 1984 and remained until his death. His final episode hosting Jeopardy was supposed to air on Christmas Day 2020, however, it was announced that the airing of final episodes will postponed and scheduled to be air on January 4-8, 2021.
Trebek was the very first person to host three American game show at the same time. He hosted Jeopardy and Classic Concentration simultaneously, and hosted To The Truth for Goodson-Todman, which he took over from Lynn Swann.
In January 2020, he hosted the Jeopardy! primetime special event on ABC, titled "The Greatest of All Time".
Trebek also appeared in various television commercials. On June 2014, Trebek was presented with the world record for most episodes of game show with a record of 6,829 episode at the time, by Guinness World Records.
Personal Life
In 1974, Trebek married the TV broadcaster Elaine Callei. They had no children although Trebek adopted Callei's daughter Nicky. The couple ended their marriage in 1981.
Trebek married Jean Currivan, a real estate project manager, in 1996 and had two children, Matthew and Emily.
In some interviews, Trebek stated that he believe in God as a Christian and was raised Catholic during his childhood and adolescence.
Trebek escaped a major injury on January 30, 2004, after falling asleep behind the wheel of his pickup truck, driving alone in a rural road in Central Coast town of Templeton, California. The truck sideswiped a string of mailboxes, flew for about 45 feet over an embankment, and came to rest over a utility pole in a ditch. Trebek did not developed serious injuries and returned to work after four days, taping Jeopardy!.
On March 2019, Trebek announced publicly that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. In an interview with CTV's Chief Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme on October 4, 2019, Trebek stated "I'm not afraid of dying" and "I've lived a good life, a full life, and I'm nearing the end of that life. If it happens, why should I be afraid of that?". In a December 2019 interview, he stated that he had already made an on-air farewell statement before his cancer diagnosis. He underwent to a surgery related to his cancer treatment on October 2020, and returned 2 week after the surgery to the show. Due to the pain from the surgery, he was incapable to handle a full workload and needed to divide his usual five-episode taping session over two days.
After fighting pancreatic cancer for more than 18 months, Trebek died at the age of 80, on November 8, 2020, at his home in Los Angeles with his remains cremated, and was given to his wife.
Net Worth
The show Jeopardy! taped 46 days a year, with an estimated of $78,000 per actual episode, Trebek shot five episode per day, earning almost $391,000. As of today 2020, Alex Trebek had an estimated net worth of $70 million.
