Alex Trebek Threatened To Quit After A Contestant’s Mom Asked Him To Re-Do The Ending Of A Jeopardy! Kids Episode

Finally, the real juicy gossip from the Sony emails gets released! I was waiting for some tasty dirt on clean-cut game show types, like Ted Allen from Chopped or David Chilton from Dragon’s Den, but a story about Alex Trebek being a difficult bitch? Christmas has come early for Allison.

Radar says that one of the recent emails leaked by the Sony hackers (which I’m choosing to call Sackers) was a nasty one between Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek and some Sony executives. It all started during the taping of an episode of Jeopardy! Kids, aka the episodes that appeal to me the most because I’m able to answer at least 2/3 of the questions correctly. One of the contestants was still in the red by the time they reached Final Jeopardy, so she started crying and ran off stage. That’s when the contestant’s mother cornered a Jeopardy! producer and told them that her daughter isn’t a sore loser and she’s super upset she can’t finish the game and asked if they’d re-shoot it so that her daughter could have a second chance. So the producers asked Alex, he said “What is FUCK NO“, and went on to finish the episode without her.

As expected, that didn’t satisfy the contestant’s mother. She ended up writing an angry email to Jeopardy! producers, saying “I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for that“, prompting the producers to once again ask Alex if he’s consider a re-shoot. Apparently the producers think Alex has a reputation for being insensitive and thought a re-shoot could help turn that around. The only problem is, Alex Trebek apparently doesn’t give a shit what people think, and he responded by threatening to walk:

“If you all think I should retape the opening, I will. But I want to say that for 30 years I’ve defended our show against attacks inside and out. But it doesn’t seem to operate both ways. When I’m vilified, corporate (and certainly legal) always seems to say ‘don’t say anything and it’ll blow over,’ and I’m not feeling support from the producers, and that disappoints the shit out of me. If I’m making mistakes and saying things you don’t like, maybe it’s time for me to move on. It’s not a threat, but I want to let you know how I’m feeling.”

“It’s not a threat, except that it’s totally a threat. Deal with it. Or, in the words of Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery: Suck it.”

I know that it’s never a good idea to choose sides when it comes to a fight between an adult and a child, but I’m with Alex Trebek on this one. If that kid wanted to make it to Final Jeopardy so badly, she should have hired Watson as a tutor. Plus, Alex Trebek is old as shit – he doesn’t have time to go back and re-shoot episodes. No, literally – if they yelled “cut” every time Alex Trebek was a dick to a contestant, we’d never get to the first Daily Double.