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‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Honors Alex Trebek by Naming Child After Him

During Wednesday night’s episode, a Jeopardy! contestant explained that he and his wife chose to name their newborn son after longtime host Alex Trebek.

Current host Mayim Bialik introduced the contestants last night as always and asked them to share a fun fact or something interesting about themselves. Julian, a sales manager from Colorado, shared a story about his audition process to get on the popular game show.

“You found out about your Jeopardy! callback on a very important day,” Bialik said to Julian.

“Yes, so we actually got the original email that we were going to be called back to go through the audition process. And my wife happened to just drop the same day that we were pregnant as well. And so, we actually ended up naming my son Alex,” Julian explained.

“That is beautiful. And it was twins, correct?” Bialik responded.

“Yes, Emma is my daughter as well,” Julian answered.

“Not Trebek?” Bialik joked about naming his daughter.

“Not Trebek,” Julian confirmed.

It’s a touching gesture for the longtime Jeopardy! host who was part of the show for almost four decades. The iconic host manned the podium for 36 years before he sadly passed away last year. In November 2020, Trebek lost his battle with pancreatic cancer.

For a Jeopardy! contestant like Julian who is obviously a fan of the game show as well, it’s quite the way to celebrate Alex Trebek’s legacy. We’re sure Trebek’s family would appreciate the gesture. As the game show’s Twitter account said, they too loved Julian’s baby name.

‘Jeopardy!’ Host Alex Trebek Passes Away at Age 80

After fighting against his pancreatic cancer diagnosis for months, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek passed away at the age of 80. The beloved host lost his long battle with cancer, but continued to work until the very end. In fact, he was filming his 37th season of the show before his death.

In March 2019, Trebek announced his pancreatic cancer diagnosis on an episode addressing fans at home. He began chemo not long after and battled the disease for more than a year. Jeopardy! shared a clip from the episode where Trebek opened up about his diagnosis on TV to avoid inaccurate tabloid reports.

“And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease,” he says in the video.

At the time, TMZ reported that Trebek accepted the fact that his chances to survive were slim. Before he passed, Trebek acknowledged that statistics show survival rates in the second year of pancreatic cancer at only seven percent.

According to Jeopardy!’s social media team, the host passed away in his home surrounded by friends and family.