Alex Trebek candidly discusses cancer struggles, but remains confident he'll return to Jeopardy!

In an interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, Trebek leavens his gutting musings on how chemotherapy makes him “feel so weak all the time” with jokes about how he “timed my diagnosis with the end of the season.” Per Trebek, he’ll be doing fine one moment, but then “it turns south on me,” resulting in surges of “deep, deep sadness” that “brings tears to my eyes.” Still, he’s positive he’ll “get strong again,” noting that “my platelets are steady, my blood counts are steady, my weight is steady.”

“You have to deal with it,” he continues. “What am I going to do? It’s something that I’m afflicted with. We’re dealing with it chemically and spiritually.” Trebek also sounds confident when he says he’ll be “back on the air with original programming come this September,” and let us savor that kind of optimism, which is sadly in short supply these days.

Watch the full interview below.