Skip to main content

Alex Trebek is shown before a taping of Celebrity Jeopardy! to celebrate the 5,000th episode of Jeopardy! at Radio City Music Hall, in this Oct. 5, 2006, photo.PAUL HAWTHORNE/The Associated Press

KING ALEX

Under the category of Famous Canadians, this proud Canuck has just become the most prolific game-show host in TV history.

The answer: Who is Alex Trebek?

At 73, the pride of Sudbury has become a Guinness World Record-holder for helming Jeopardy! for the past three decades.

Last Friday, Trebek received an official certificate from the Guinness organizers for "the most game show episodes hosted by the same presenter."

The magic number: 6,829 episodes.

Trebek took over the Jeopardy! hosting duties (following two separate hosting stints by founding host Art Fleming) in 1984 and has since asked contestants more than 416,000 questions.

And in a video commemorating his milestone achievement, Trebek says he's not looking to retire any time soon.

"I want to continue for a few more years," says Trebek in the video. "The good news is as long as I keep hosting the program, I stay ahead of whoever's in second place, and that makes me feel good."

And with nearly 7,000 episodes of Jeopardy! in the can, there are naturally all sorts of Trebek highlights available on YouTube.

Remember earlier this year when Trebek rapped several of the lyric/clues provided in the category "It's a Rap"?

And remember that awkward occasion on last year's Kids Week competition when Trebek was forced to inform a 12-year-old contestant that his Final Jeopardy! answer was incorrect because it was "misspelled badly"?

Or how about the time a female contestant who accused Trebek of being "insensitive" for making a joke about her deceased pet goat?

But even with those real-life moments, it's likely more people remember Trebek for his 1990 appearance on Cheers, when he was forced to tell mailman Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) that his Final Jeopardy! answer wasn't just wrong, it was also really dumb.

Thanks for the memories, Alex. Long may you run.

NAME CHANGE

Deryck Whibley has finally dropped ex-wife Avril Lavigne's surname. The Sum 41 frontman, whose divorce from Lavigne was finalized nearly four years ago, has officially removed Lavigne from his signature. Whibley legally changed his stage name to Deryck Lavigne shortly after his 2006 marriage to his fellow Canadian artist. Since the couple's divorce, Lavigne has married Nickelback singer Chad Koreger while Whibley is now engaged to fiancée Ariana Cooper. Whibley also went on his personal website recently to update fans on his physical condition following his recent hospitalization for alcohol abuse. "I'm only now starting to be able to get up and walk on my own," writes Whibley. "But it's still very painful."

Source: Us

COS AND EFFECT

Don't hold your breath waiting for a reunion of The Cosby Show. Star and producer Bill Cosby recently conducted a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session during which a fan asked if there would ever be a TV reunion of the groundbreaking sitcom that aired on NBC from 1984 to 1992. The 72-year-old Cosby's response: "No, thank you. Those people are too old now." In the same chat, Cosby was willing to speculate on what his former TV persona of Cliff Huxtable and wife Claire might be doing 20-odd years later. "He'd be retired," mused Cosby. "And she'd be retired. And right now they would be somewhere in the south of France, and he would be hiding at a bakery in the morning having two croissants and blueberry jam."

Source: Today

NO SHOW

Morrissey has pulled the plug on his much-anticipated summer concert tour. The British singer (real name Steven Patrick Morrissey) has cancelled all dates on his upcoming U.S. tour due to ongoing health problems. A message on the singer's Facebook page stated, "It is with great sadness that the remainder of the U.S. tour has been cancelled. The respiratory infection Morrissey contracted in Miami has worsened, and in the interest of making a full recovery, all further touring plans have been halted." According to reports, Morrissey first began to feel the effects of the respiratory ailment after performing in Miami last month.

Source: CNN

DIESEL FUEL

Action star Vin Diesel is reportedly bogging down production on The Fast & Furious 7 with prima donna behaviour. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the muscle-bound actor is being highly temperamental on the big-budget film, which is proceeding despite the death of franchise star Paul Walker last year. "Vin spent a whole day in his trailer one day," said an unnamed source. "The next day, they waited four hours for him." Another source said the film's crew were suffering from "low morale" during the shoot.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

GOOD MEMORY

Samuel L. Jackson takes a backseat to no man when it comes to remembering dialogue. The actor recently appeared on the BBC talker The Graham Norton Show when the host asked if he could recall his Ezekiel 25:17 speech from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Jackson responded by reciting the infamous speech verbatim in its entirety, which earned him a solid round of applause from Norton and his studio audience.

Source: USA Today

Interact with The Globe