Alex Trebek: The last great game-show host

Trebek has by now done more than 6,000 shows. He is a TV star who presides over an assembly line.

Alex Trebek
(Image credit: (Facebook.com/Jeopardy!))

THE SET OF Jeopardy! was given a shiny makeover last year, in preparation for the quiz show's 50th birthday. The new look features that familiar, top-heavy, bubble-letter logo and a gorgeously tacky sunset backdrop that provides an odd companion to the sexless blue-and-white board. In fluorescent spirit, though, the set is unchanged since the 1980s, much like the program itself.

Contestants come and go. Some, like this year's star, Arthur Chu, even briefly become big deals. But it is Alex Trebek who has remained the centerpiece. His extended tenure as America's senior-most faculty member has made Americans forget that he's playing a part; a few years ago, Trebek was voted the eighth-most-trusted person in the United States, sandwiched between Bill and Melinda Gates.

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