Five months after revealing that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek is back at work.
“I’ve gone through a lot of chemotherapy and thankfully that is now over,” he said in a clip promoting season 36 of the show. “I’m on the mend and that’s all I can hope for right now… Let me tell you, it’s going to be a good year.”
Trebek shared his cancer diagnosis in a video message in March, saying, “Now, just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working.” He later thanked fans for their support (“I’m extremely touched by the warmth you have expressed in your comments to me”) and even when he felt “surges” of “deep, deep sadness,” his sense of humor never went away. “Truth told, I have to [beat the disease] because under the terms of my contract, I have to host Jeopardy! for three more years,” Trebek joked.
CNN reports that production for season 36 of Jeopardy! is already underway, and the new episodes are slated to begin airing on September 9.
