New York City bartender Austin Rogers ended his 12 game Jeopardy run on Thursday evening, taking home a modest $411,000 in winnings. After his run ended, he stopped by the Tonight Show to visit his old pal Jimmy Fallon — literally, since the two apparently go way back, as Fallon is a regular patron of the (now very popular, probably) Manhattan bar Rogers works at.
After running through a montage of Rogers’ various introductions, Fallon asked him what Alex Trebek was like, and whether or not the two of them get along. “We got along fairly well, I still have a theory he’s a hologram,” he said, providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the game show. “He doesn’t exist off that stage, man. He comes down when the lights come on, he leaves when the lights are off … he’s like with Tupac and Michael Jackson walking across the hologram stage.”
Rogers also said that the enigmatic Jeopardy host had no problem with being called “dude.” “He’s Canadian, he won’t bite back,” Rogers quipped. “If he was American I might have gotten in trouble, like, ‘ooh sorry’,” he said, mimicking a Canadian accent. “He’s a legend, he’s a television legend.”
Love him or hate him, you can catch Rogers when he returns to Jeopardy in November for the upcoming Tournament Of Champions.