'Jeopardy!' host Ken Jennings hails 'Wheel of Fortune' host Pat Sajak as 'more fun' than his own forerunner Alex Trebek
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA: 'Jeopardy!' host Ken Jennings has opened up about preferring 'Wheel of Fortune' icon Pat Sajak's humor over his very own idol Alex Trebek.
Perhaps one of his biggest fans, Jennings confessed that while he loved his late senior, he found Sajak a lot funnier in terms of being an entertainer.
Ken Jennings says he is more like Pat Sajak than Alex Trebek
On appearing in a podcast called 'Life is Short' by Justin Long, Jennings revealed that while he respected Trebek as a host, he preferred Sajak's humor.
The host made this note when the podcaster questioned him about maintaining the interest of viewers during short interviews with the contestants.
"Alex was such a genius at hosting 'Jeopardy!'," Jennings said, according to The US Sun, "You really cannot do better than that. But as a kid I was like, 'Pat's more fun, Pat jokes around with the three people."
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The host also seemed to think that he leaned towards Sajak in terms of his own hosting skills.
"I think there's a little bit of that in my PNA," Jennings continued, "I'm a little more of a Pat Sajak where I'm like if I say one more thing please end it with a joke. Whereas Alex was very much like 'Okay, helium balloons alright. How about you?'"
He also added, "I wanna make [the interviews] less painful than it was for me as a viewer."
Ken Jennings confesses hosting 'Jeopardy!' is hard as he praises Trebek
While he might be critical of Trebek's humor, Jennings has consistently sung praises for his idol. Only recently, he was part of a video that was made as an homage to the late 'Jeopardy!' host for the cancer fund set up by his wife Jean Trebek in partnership with Stand Up To Cancer.
"He created this place, this space where it was safe to be a smart person," Jennings said in the video.
"He was so good at it, so graceful, so perfect for the role that we all thought that job was easy," he continued, "And it's not. Hosting 'Jeopardy!' is incredibly hard."
Recalling the time when he was thanked by Trebek for taking over his job, Jennings confessed that he was more than grateful for it.
"'Jeopardy!' was such an important thing in his life that no matter how he was feeling, no matter how rough the treatments were, he could come in and he would still be Alex Trebek," Jennings said.
Trebek was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer which took his life in 2020. Ever since then, Jennings has permanently taken over the stage amongst other guest hosts.
"I think about him every time I'm out there, on the Alex Trebek stage," he added, "Sharing the stage with Alex Trebek was one of the greatest honors of my life."
