What is pressure?
That’s what Ken Jennings was feeling when tasked with taking over Jeopardy! hosting duties temporarily following the death of the show’s longtime host, Alex Trebek. The beloved 80 year old passed away on Nov. 8 after battling stage four pancreatic cancer.
After Trebek’s final shows, taped before his death, air this week, Jennings—famously a Jeopardy! champion himself—is slated to take over as interim host, followed by other guest hosts from within the show family.
“I don’t think I’ve been more nervous in my life,” Jennings told E!’s Scott Tweedie. “The Chase is a cakewalk compared to having to host Jeopardy! just because it’s nerve-wracking to know the legacy and the size of the shoes you’re filling.”
Just two months after Trebek’s passing, his absence in the world is strongly felt. “Just to be frank,” he continued, “nobody wants me there. I don’t want me there. We all want to see Alex there for 100 years in a perfect world and, you know, I really just wanted to do the best I could so as not to let him down and Jeopardy! viewers down, so I felt a lot of pressure.”