A Message From Alex

March 6, 2019 3:06 PM

In a video to his fans and show watchers, longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek announces publicly that he is undergoing treatment for stage 4 pancreatic cancer. (SLYT)

He takes a humorous tone with the announcement, stating that he plans to fight and beat it, because he's still contracted to host for 3 more years.

posted by NoxAeternum (47 comments total)

Hoping for the best for Mr. Trebek.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2019

Fuuuuck this.
Also, he's so frank and open and smart; I just really dig and respect that guy.
posted by heyho at 3:10 PM on March 6, 2019 [7 favorites]

extend his contract for another 10 years you fools
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:10 PM on March 6, 2019 [47 favorites]

What is something I'm truly sorry to hear about?
posted by hijinx at 3:11 PM on March 6, 2019 [76 favorites]

Good to see him in good spirits, and I sure hope he beats it.
(But who are the 38 people who would give this a thumbs down? Maybe they're giving the cancer a thumbs down?)
posted by Glinn at 3:19 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Ugh.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:21 PM on March 6, 2019

Damn. Hope that he can beat this but pancreatic is one of the worst.
posted by octothorpe at 3:28 PM on March 6, 2019 [9 favorites]

My dad died of pancreatic cancer. We learned this when we got the results of his autopsy.

Thinking good thoughts for Alex.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:36 PM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]

Goddammit. Fuck cancer.
posted by thecaddy at 3:37 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

Tomorrow's the anniversary of my taping, so he and the rest of the people there were already in my thoughts. Oof.
posted by rewil at 3:42 PM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]

:(
posted by materialgirl at 3:46 PM on March 6, 2019

We watch Jeopardy every night as a family. Our little one is 1.5 years old and his vocabulary currently includes:

Dada
Mama
B (for Betsy, the dog)
Dog
Owl
Duck
Bird
Rain (for Singing in the Rain)
Alright alright alright (the first thing I taught him)
Daily double (for watching Jeopardy)

He waits for the daily double and loves clapping with the audience when they come up. Good luck Alex! We'll be praying for you.
posted by allkindsoftime at 3:48 PM on March 6, 2019 [25 favorites]

Dammit. We watch Jeopardy every night. This is a real gut-punch. Here’s hoping for the best.

How far in advance are the shows taped ahead of air? I’m assuming tonight’s show will be pre-announcement. That’s gonna be a little weird.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:52 PM on March 6, 2019

Depends on when in the season things are taped - I taped in February, my episode appeared in April. I know that it's far enough ahead that Ken Jennings was done well before his run aired. (basically they knock out two weeks in two days per filming week)
posted by drewbage1847 at 4:02 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Knowing the chances of my making it on the show as a contestant are more or less slim and none, back in November I took my 14-year-old son, also a die-hard fan, to a taping. We got to see three episodes filmed (if anyone happens to be curious, all three were ones where the champ was the former bassist for the Runaways.

It was a huge thrill to be in the studio, to see the big board, to see the contestant stands up close, to see some of the behind the scenes machinations in putting the show together (I didn’t realize some of the vertically challenged contestants need to stand on boxes), to see something in person that I’ve been watching on TV since I was literally in elementary school. What stuck with me more than anything though was the way Alex Trebek interacted with the audience. During the planned commercial breaks, Alex comes over to the audience area and fields questions. I have to imagine this gets really old, answering the same questions over and over and over (“What do you like best about hosting the show?”); I wouldn’t blame him at all if this started to become something of a mechanical, “going through the motions” process. To the contrary, though, he was completely gregarious, funny, self-deprecating, engaging. More than once the director had to basically nudge him to stop yacking with the audience and get back to the show. I can’t claim to have any great insight into his being from having sat in the audience at one taping of “Jeopardy”, but I can say with pretty strong confidence that he truly loves his job.

I hope he beats the odds.
posted by The Gooch at 4:04 PM on March 6, 2019 [17 favorites]

If you have some money and want to donate, check out the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation, which funds research and supports families that have been affected by pancreatic cancer. The Lustgarten Cancer Foundation is also researching treatment.
posted by pxe2000 at 4:06 PM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]

this makes me inexplicably sad. Jeopardy has always been there as has Alex Trebek. I'll be rooting for him.
posted by bluesky43 at 4:11 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

My dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer over Thanksgiving weekend.

He... he didn't last long.

Good luck, Alex. You're gonna need it.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 4:24 PM on March 6, 2019 [22 favorites]

My brother had pancreatic cancer, not diagnosed promptly. I hope it goes better for Alex. Cancer sucks.
posted by theora55 at 4:31 PM on March 6, 2019

This is such upsetting news. I've just been watching the All-Stars tournament (haven't watched the final yet) after not having watched Jeopardy! in some time, and it reminded me how much I enjoy Alex as the host. I started watching the show as a kid in the Art Fleming days, but Alex has been the host for so long that he's indelibly identified with it for me.

His video message is so classy and so much what I'd expect from him. I know he's facing long odds, but I truly hope he kicks cancer's ass.
posted by the sobsister at 4:33 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

Good luck to him.

Thinking best X-Files thoughts.
posted by doctornemo at 4:34 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

damn...this is a tough diagnosis and I wish him well. I grew up in a Jeopardy family, and I've even turned my husband on to it a bit. Trebek is iconic...
posted by supermedusa at 4:39 PM on March 6, 2019

Dammit :( I watch the show most evenings (Mrs. Photo Guy and I are actually watching it right now) and auditioned twice but never got a callback. The best of luck to him.
posted by photo guy at 5:03 PM on March 6, 2019

That is a hell of a video.
posted by Nelson at 5:10 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'll take "Fuck Cancer" for $1000, Alex.
posted by briank at 5:21 PM on March 6, 2019 [9 favorites]

Cancer and Jeopardy were already closely associated in my mind. As I posted in my first Metafilter comment ever, I was in the live audience for Cindy Stowell’s last few games.

Fuck cancer.
posted by notoriety public at 5:32 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]

Damn—horrible news.

Since I watch Jeopardy! almost every day, I spend more time with Alex than with my family, who live within a few blocks.

As already noted, pancreatic cancer is a bitch. My dad was diagnosed Memorial Day weekend in 2007. He was buried on July 3rd.
posted by she's not there at 6:24 PM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]

Oh no! I recently lost my mom to gallbladder cancer; any malignancy in that area is bad news. I hope Mr. Trebek beats the odds; but I also hope him and his loved ones prepare for the worst.
posted by TedW at 6:27 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is terrible news. I hope he gets as much time as possible with the people he loves, I know that's what I'd be doing in his place.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:53 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've watched "Jeopardy" as long as I can remember, and it has always been self-evident that Trebek is so perfectly-suited for his role as host -- earnest, serious, square...Canadian -- that the show couldn't exist as it does without him reading the questions.

My fourth kid is now old enough to be shouting out some correct(!) answers even before the contestants, and it warms my secretly-competitive heart.

Good luck, Alex Trebek, and Godspeed: you've made so many of my dinnertimes mentally stimulating that you probably added years to my life.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:26 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]

I texted this video to my mom and dad in tears. Jeopardy is basically the only TV show we all equally enjoy watching together.

Alex Trebek has been Jeopardy so reliably for so long that shows like The X-Files that parodied Alex Trebek during their heyday are now old enough to have inspired nostalgic revivals. This has been a rough week for TV's comforting favorites.
posted by nicebookrack at 7:40 PM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]

Ive been a Jeopardy fan for decades, old enough to have memories of the original with Art Fleming.

I took the test in person about 15 years ago And after doing the online test the past several years, I was contacted to audition last summer.

Being in the current pool of contestant candidates, I have felt especially close to /possessive of the show. Needless to say, this news is a gut punch, and I send all good thoughts to him & his family. And to the several people associated with the show whom I've met.
posted by NorthernLite at 8:09 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Man, it's just one awful thing after another this week.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:31 PM on March 6, 2019

I am immediately reminded of another announcement, about a different cancer diagnosis, from another Canadian expat who was a fixture of the small screen throughout my childhood — Peter Jennings. He was gone a few months later.

That was fourteen years ago, and I’m not ready for this. Stage IV pan-can is about as brutal and brief as it gets.

I still have the ashes on my forehead from church earlier. Even after (yet another) cancer took my mom too early, I still haven’t figured out how to make peace with this “to dust we shall return” business.
posted by armeowda at 9:21 PM on March 6, 2019 [5 favorites]

This mini-Twitter thread from notable Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings made me smile:

@KenJennings: I’ve said this before but Alex Trebek is in a way the last Cronkite: authoritative, reassuring TV voice you hear every night, almost to the point of ritual.

@KenJennings: One thing I know for a fact: Alex is very aware of how much he means to millions of people, and how we will be pulling for him...I hope that’s a comfort.

@KenJennings: And I hope some very good L.A. oncologists are getting ready to have their mispronunciations corrected.
posted by nicebookrack at 9:25 PM on March 6, 2019 [21 favorites]

Alex Trebek has been Jeopardy so reliably for so long that shows like The X-Files that parodied Alex Trebek during their heyday...

Here's a game show sketch from SCTV where "Alex Trebel" is the host. It debuted in 1978.
posted by PlusDistance at 5:10 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

I had a friend. His mom had died swiftly once she was diagnosed, so he was on high alert, looking for it, waiting for it to show up because he suspected it would. He had unfettered access to excellent healthcare. And he was a total optimist with a huge ego, so he was pretty damn sure he could beat it if he caught it early enough.

The day the pain hit him was bad, and he rushed to the docs, but they couldn't figure out what was up, even though he explicitly told them what to look for, and they did look for it. This freaked him out, so he went to more docs and still couldn't get answers. He had the means, so he crossed the border into the States and saw some of the best doctors we have here. He called in friends who were doctors—I mean he was rich and well networked, he was credible, and it seemed he had everything at his disposal. He couldn't get a proper diagnosis here (they agreed that it looked just like pancreatic cancer, but it wasn't acting like it, so they couldn't determine if that's what it really was), so they sent him to Paris. The doctors in Paris recognized it, diagnosed it, and shuttled him to Germany to a doctor they call the Pope of the Pancreas for treatment. He had a lot of confidence in this doctor and was really sure he had a high probability of survival. And I (bit of a pessimist maybe?) thought oh my god, my friend is going to actually fucking beat this because he's got resources and the best support system I've ever seen/heard of in my life—I'm not kidding, this guy had it all. They treated him for months, and it still didn't work. The best pancreatic guy, the best hospitals, the best, smartest, most loving and involved take-charge wife—and all the money in the world at his disposal (a very wealthy friend stepped up, ready and willing to bankroll his treatment forever if for any reason he became unable to pay himself).

Pancreatic cancer doesn't give a flying fuck how wealthy, supported, or loved you are. And I am without that beautiful person in my life forever now, and every mention of this shit makes me feel small and weak and extremely motherfucking sad.

I'm not sure how many episodes of Jeopardy! I've missed over the years, but it hasn't been many. It's something I've watched my entire life, for as long as I can remember. Alex Trebek, another Canadian I just adore and respect so much, is going to be taken the same way. And just like that, my heart is breaking yet again. Life is fucking interesting, I tell you what.
posted by heyho at 5:24 AM on March 7, 2019 [11 favorites]

Seeing all the personal stories of loss in this thread makes me want to send my condolences to all of you who have lost a loved one to cancer (or for any other reason).
posted by TedW at 5:35 AM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

My sister-in-law's father died from this. It was a very short time from diagnosis to death, but I wouldn't call it mercifully short. There was no mercy at all.
posted by tommasz at 5:46 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

Pancreatic cancer is what got my mother's twin sister. It was less than a month from diagnosis to death. The longest month I've ever experienced.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:20 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

I learned today that in a grim coincidence, Art Fleming died of pancreatic cancer.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:58 AM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

In fellowship (I'm an oncologist), the first patient that I gave chemotherapy to had pancreatic cancer. He was a 10-year colon cancer survivor. He had locally-advanced disease, and so he got chemo (a particularly difficult regimen) with the goal of shrinking his tumor and getting him to surgery. No dice. Different chemo with radiation - some improvement. More chemo. After almost a year of treatment, his tumor regressed to the point that he could get surgery.

It's hard to describe how a life in cancer medicine affects your perception of how a cancer can be a "bad one" or a "good one." I never use the trope of "If you had to have cancer, this is the one that you want." All cancer is bad. But pancreatic cancer stands out, even this far into my career, as a particularly upsetting and frustrating diagnosis. Only 30% of patients will be candidate for resection, and only a small percentage of even those will have a prolonged disease-free interval. I have never met a mean person with pancreatic cancer - it feels like it only happens to really kind, sweet people.

There is a thread running in one of my oncology groups about Mr. Trebek, with the leader comment saying that she was sad for him because he was making overly optimistic statements. Someone else talked back, saying that in acknowledging the statistics, we (oncologists) give up our hope. That having too much knowledge, with 1 in 10 having prolonged survival, we give up hope. Who knows? He may be the one in 10 (and he has the money to buy himself the best medical care, although that's a totally different argument about health care in America). Who are we to say?

My patient went to surgery. He died a month afterward, at home, unexpectedly, from complications of his surgery. He was cancer free when he died. I will always remember his kindness, his grace, his perseverance, his tenacity, and how badly he wanted to beat his cancer. We had lots of conversations about how the surgery might go. I spent a month after he died, wondering if letting him go for surgery was the right thing - he had been doing well on chemo, and might have lived longer. It's been three years now - his number is still in my phone. It's a little reminder when I see it of him, and how people are both incredibly resilient and terribly fragile, all at once.

My favorite mentor from residency was diagnosed a couple of years before I knew her - young, otherwise healthy, had a Whipple. Last year, she recurred in her liver. We are in touch, but I found out from friends. I know that our goodbye is coming, but I can't quite get there yet.

And last weekend, my very favorite patient (who would win the Best Person award, if there was one) had a living memorial last weekend. I went, and held it together for almost two hours, until I was able to get in my car and cry all the way home.

It's been a rough couple of months for me and pancreatic cancer. I'm still waiting for my 1 in 10, and saving that, better therapies that help us get better outcomes for our patients and their loved ones.
posted by honeybee413 at 10:15 AM on March 7, 2019 [22 favorites]

My condolences to everyone who's lost a loved one -- and you take care of yourself, honeybee413, too, with thanks for your hard work as well.
posted by milnews.ca at 10:42 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

she was sad for him because he was making overly optimistic statements.

I got the impression from the video that he knows exactly how bad this is but is choosing optimism. He sort of has to at least perform optimism to have it not hang over the show too badly, I would think.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:10 PM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

When I think "Presenter," I think Alex Trebek. What a giant of popular culture.

And thanks for the Peter Jennings mention, armeowda. That was a devastating loss.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 2:32 PM on March 8, 2019

And in a follow up video, Alex thanks everyone for the outpouring of support and well wishes.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:45 PM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

A man with stage 4 pancreatic cancer says "I'm a lucky guy". God damn.
posted by zabuni at 1:39 AM on March 17, 2019 [1 favorite]