Alex Trebek Offers Health Update in ‘Good Morning America’ Interview (VIDEO)
While most Jeopardy! fans continue to be amazed by the record-breaking champion James Holzhauer, host Alex Trebek finally spoke out on his cancer battle on Good Morning America on Wednesday.
The longtime game-show host had a candid conversation with correspondent Robin Roberts about his stage 4 pancreatic cancer, after revealing his diagnosis earlier this year. “People all over America have been sharing their good thoughts, their advice, their prayers, and I feel it is making a difference in my well-being,” Trebek told her about the fan response.
On March 6, Trebek revealed his diagnosis in a transparent video message via Jeopardy!‘s YouTube and vowed to fight. During the interview with Roberts, he offered some updates on his condition.
“My oncologist tells me I’m doing well, even though I don’t always feel it,” he said honestly. “I’ve had kidney stones; I’ve had ruptured discs, so I’m used to dealing with pain, but what I’m not used to dealing with is these surges that come on suddenly of deep, deep sadness, and it brings tears to my eyes.
“I’ve discovered in this whole episode, ladies and gentlemen, that I’m a bit of a wuss. But I’m fighting through it. My platelets, my blood counts are steady, my weight is steady … The cancer indicators, those are coming down. So I’ve got another chemo next week, and then we’ll do a review to find out where things stand.”
As of now, Trebek plans to return for the game show’s 36th season in September, and he told Roberts he hopes to join other cancer survivors who have survived years beyond their diagnosis dates.
“Now, I have the summer months to recuperate and get strong again. I just have to get strong because, as you know, the chemo takes it out of you,” Trebek said to Roberts, who has also battled cancer. “I mean I feel so weak all the time, and that’s not a good place to be.”
Roberts commended Trebek on his willingness to share his health struggles publicly, as it isn’t always easy to be so open. When she asked him about his chemo treatments he told her, “I just take it as it comes.”
“It’s no big deal. I go in [for chemo] and I sit down; I joke with the nurses. And I’m there for an hour and a half while they inject all of this stuff into me and then I go home and I have a good day, and then the next day, for no reason that I can fathom, it turns south on me. But that’s okay. You have to deal with it. What am I going to do?
Trebek continued, sharing his one-day-at-a-time approach to the ordeal. “It is something that I’m afflicted with; we are dealing with it chemically and spiritually and those are positives. And hopefully everything is gonna turn out well, and I’ll be back on the air with original programming come this September.”
But Trebek didn’t just speak about himself — he acknowledged Jeopardy!‘s current champion Holzhauer.
“He has forced me to change a view that I have held for many years, and that is that the Ken Jennings record would never be broken,” he said.
Jeopardy, Weeknights, check your local listings
