As reported by Vulture, Alex Trebek is getting ready to release one thing that we’ve all wanted form him for the past few decades: A trashy tell-all book about Jeopardy! and all of the behind-the-scenes drama that happens when the cameras aren’t on. Ken Jennings did what? The Watson computer was actually a man in a box with access to Google? You don’t actually have to answer in the form of a question, and it’s only in the rules as a running joke? Fascinating!
Actually, we made that stuff up, as Trebek’s book is going to be less of a trashy tell-all and more of a regular memoir. Titled The Answer Is…: Reflections On My Life (that ellipses into a colon is a hell of a choice), the book will cover Trebek’s battle against pancreatic cancer, his marriage, and fun stuff like “what prompted him to shave his signature mustache, his insights on legendary players like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer, and his opinion of Will Ferrell’s Saturday Night Live impersonation.” The book will be available on July 21, but apparently Trebek only agreed to write it relatively recently, after seeing how much goodwill he received from fans of Jeopardy! after announcing his cancer diagnosis. That makes us wonder: Did Trebek not know that people like him before that? If so, we as a society should really do a better job letting people know when we like them. Do Tom Hanks and Beyoncé know that we like them? Do they sit at home, wondering if anyone actually cares about what they do?
We don’t necessarily need them to write memoirs, but we’ll take some trashy tell-all books at least.