My favorite Alex Trebek moment came in December, 2014. It wasn’t even on his show.
It was the Colbert Report finale—Stephen Colbert was retiring his character to be more authentic as a late-night talk show host. The final scene found Colbert on his studio’s roof, holding Captain America’s shield and a sword.
Then, Santa Claus landed his sleigh on the roof. His other passengers were Abraham Lincoln and the one who has all of the answers, Alex Trebek. The joke was that these mythical American icons were there to bring Colbert into the fold. However, Colbert pointed out that Trebek was Canadian.
The sleigh of icons summed up just what Alex Trebek meant to American viewers of the TV show. He was not just the host. He was the show. For 36 years, there was no Jeopardy without Alex Trebek. His passing this weekend was a loss for our collective joy.
Alex Trebek was the great equalizer. The man not only had all of the answers but delivered them with wit and a sometimes-biting rebuke.
While the tributes for Alex Trebek have all been about what a kind man he was, he was cutting if you provided the wrong answer. He was happy to call out incredibly mundane or stupid anecdotes.
Trebek embodied the conceit of the show. You may be smart, but this show humbles everyone in the end. Even the greatest players like James Holzhauer and Ken Jennings eventually lost.
Being a good host requires you to set a tone that’s in-line with the event and make your audience feel welcome. Alex Trebek did so as the cerebral force of TV. In my lifetime, his hosting ability on Jeopardy was unparalleled. His intellectualism was only matched on game shows by Regis Philbin’s enthusiasm for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Bob Barker’s reverence to the Price is Right and Steve Harvey’s incredulous exuberance on Family Feud.
While we lost Alex Trebek this weekend, he will remain in the DNA of America forever—just like Lincoln and Santa Claus.
