“Jeopardy James” Holzhauerfinally ended his 32-game winning streak on Monday, taking home $2.46 million, just shy ofKen Jennings’record earnings of $2.5 million in 2004.But while game show hostAlex Trebekwas rooting for Holzhauer (who he says is a “great guy”), he told PEOPLE last December that he never believed anyone would ever do as well as Ken Jennings, 45, did during his 74-game streak 15 years ago.“When Ken Jennings finally lost, that was a sad day for me,” said Trebek, 78. “I shed a tear, just because this marvelous series, this marvelous streak had suddenly come to an end. And it will never be matched. By anybody.”The longtime host of the show, who has been asking the tough questions for 35 years, called Jennings’ streak “the perfect wave.” He said, “Everything just seemed to fall into place for him, the categories, whatever.”Sony/REX/ShutterstockTrebek, who recently opened up to PEOPLE about how he’s beensuccessfully fighting his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer,also praised Julia Collins, who has the show’s second-longest win streak in history, hanging in for 20 games in 2014.“They’re all bright, otherwise they wouldn’t be there,” Trebek said ofJeopardy!players. “If they happen to hit their categories, they’re going to succeed more than if the categories aren’t their area of expertise, so you never know. In the past, I used to watch rehearsal games and you’d see one contestant perform really well and blow away the others — and then on the show, nothing.”Jeopardy Productions, Inc.Trebek said nerves often play a part in a contestant blowing it, but he dislikes the games in which contestants miss a lot of the material.“I want to see players succeed,” he said. “I love it. We had a contestant recently win $39 thousand, and that makes me happy.”
“Jeopardy James” Holzhauerfinally ended his 32-game winning streak on Monday, taking home $2.46 million, just shy ofKen Jennings’record earnings of $2.5 million in 2004.
But while game show hostAlex Trebekwas rooting for Holzhauer (who he says is a “great guy”), he told PEOPLE last December that he never believed anyone would ever do as well as Ken Jennings, 45, did during his 74-game streak 15 years ago.
“When Ken Jennings finally lost, that was a sad day for me,” said Trebek, 78. “I shed a tear, just because this marvelous series, this marvelous streak had suddenly come to an end. And it will never be matched. By anybody.”
The longtime host of the show, who has been asking the tough questions for 35 years, called Jennings’ streak “the perfect wave.” He said, “Everything just seemed to fall into place for him, the categories, whatever.”
Sony/REX/Shutterstock
Trebek, who recently opened up to PEOPLE about how he’s beensuccessfully fighting his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer,also praised Julia Collins, who has the show’s second-longest win streak in history, hanging in for 20 games in 2014.
“They’re all bright, otherwise they wouldn’t be there,” Trebek said ofJeopardy!players. “If they happen to hit their categories, they’re going to succeed more than if the categories aren’t their area of expertise, so you never know. In the past, I used to watch rehearsal games and you’d see one contestant perform really well and blow away the others — and then on the show, nothing.”
Jeopardy Productions, Inc.
Trebek said nerves often play a part in a contestant blowing it, but he dislikes the games in which contestants miss a lot of the material.
“I want to see players succeed,” he said. “I love it. We had a contestant recently win $39 thousand, and that makes me happy.”
source: people.com
