Channel 11’s Jennifer Tomazic sits down with Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek

LOS ANGELES — You wouldn’t know he’s in a fight for his life by watching Alex Trebek at work. Many close to him say he’s the first one in the office, at 6 a.m. some days, reading through all the questions and answers and meeting with producers.

Channel 11 Anchor Jennifer Tomazic spent the day on the set of “Jeopardy!” in Culver City, California. She says Trebek was on point during the tapings she watched and he had a quick wit for the audience’s questions during commercial breaks.

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Since March 2019, Trebek has been fighting a very public battle with pancreatic cancer. In fact, Tomazic says what really caught her eye at the studio was a glass case spilling over with letters and other well wishes for Trebek from fans around the world.

“Some people would say that’s a bad deal that Alex has got. But there are a lot of people out there who have been informed that they have cancer, they have heart problems, serious other diseases, they have Parkinson’s, whatever, you name it. But they have to deal with it, and that’s what I have to,” said Trebek during a recent one-on-one interview. “But they don’t have that great outpouring of warmth and prayerful thoughts coming from people all over America and that’s been a great help to me.”

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Tomazic read Facebook comments to Trebek from Pittsburghers. They were in response to a recent post about him to the WPXI Facebook page.

“Godspeed Alex on your journey. Prayers to Alex. Prayers for you and your family. A true gentleman, Godspeed, sir.”

“The response from people all over America and Canada with regard to my current health situation is humbling, really. I had no idea that our show and myself had such an impact on the lives of so many people out there,” responded Trebek.

He’s been the host of “Jeopardy!” since 1984 and he told Channel 11 he’s going to keep hosting as long as his skills don’t diminish. Neither he nor his producers would speculate on the future of the show and instead are focused on the here and now.

“My response has been the same for all of these people: let’s both agree that we’re going to become survivors,” Trebek said.

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