Net Worth of Alex Trebek

What is the net worth of Alex Trebek? Alex Trebek was previously an American game show host who was born in Canada. At the time of his passing, he was estimated to have a net worth of $75 million. His career as the host of the syndicated game show “Jeopardy!” brought him the lion’s share of his fame. From its inception in 1984 until the month of his passing in 2020, he presided over the show. Trebek fought pancreatic cancer for an entire year before succumbing to the disease on November 8, 2020, at the age of 80.

Net Worth of Alex Trebek: Biography

The net worth of Alex Trebek started with humble beginnings. Trebek was the son of George Edward Trebek (born Terebeychuk), a chef who had emigrated from the Ukraine as a child, and Lucille Marie Lagacé (April 14, 1921 – 2016), a Franco-Ontarian. Trebek was born on 7/22/1940, in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. His parents were George Edward Trebek (born Terebeychuk) and Lucille Marie Lagacé. Trebek’s maternal grandmother was born at Mount St. Patrick, which is located close to Renfrew, in Renfrew County, Ontario. This is where Trebek’s family history began. He was raised in a home that was bilingual in French and English.

Trebek was in danger of losing his place at the boarding school that his parents had sent him to. Soon after that, he enrolled in a military college; nevertheless, he did not complete his studies since he refused to shave his hair. Trebek had his first job when he was only 13 years old. He worked as a bellhop in the hotel where his father was employed as a cook. After graduating from Sudbury High School, which is now known as Sudbury Secondary School, Trebek studied at the University of Ottawa. In 1961, Trebek received a degree in philosophy from the University of Ottawa, where he had previously studied. During his time as a college student here, he participated in the English Debating Society. At the time, he was thinking about making a career change into television news.

Net Worth of Alex Trebek: Career

The net worth of Alex Trebek continues with his great career beginnings. Trebek started his professional life in 1961, the same year he began working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), but he did not yet have his degree. “I went to school in the mornings and worked at night,” Trebek is quoted as saying. “I did everything, at one time replacing every announcer in every imaginable profession.” He quickly began reading the national news for CBC Radio and reporting on a wide range of special events, including horse racing and curling, for CBC Radio and CBC Television. That career would eventually come to an end.

In 1963, Trebek got his start in the hosting business working for a Canadian music program called Music Hop. During the year 1966, he was the host of a high school game show called “Reach for the Top.” From 1967 until 1970, he worked as a host for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where he introduced several classical music programs, some of which featured performances by Glenn Gould. He may have presented a weekly skating program for one or two skating seasons. Trebek also hosted a show called Strategy, a weekday afternoon game program, beginning on April 1, 1969. Strategy aired from Monday through Friday. Trebek was the host of the local morning drive radio show on CBC Toronto called “I’m Here Til 9” from 1971 all the way until the end of 1972.

Trebek was one of several candidates that were considered seriously for the role of replacing Ward Cornell as the host of Hockey Night in Canada in 1971. Ralph Mellanby, the executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada, stated in 2020 that he ultimately chose Dave Hodge as the host of the show rather than Alex Trebek because his boss did not want a person with a mustache to host the show. This was despite the fact that Trebek was Mellanby’s preferred choice based on his audition and other roles he had played for the CBC.

After moving to the United States in 1973, Trebek was hired by NBC to serve as the host of a brand-new game show titled “The Wizard of Odds.” A year later, Trebek became the host of High Rollers, a successful game show created by Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley. High Rollers aired on NBC in two different versions between the years 1974 and 1980, and it also had a season that was syndicated (1975–76). Trebek served as the host of the CBS game show Double Dare in the time gaps between his appearances as the presenter of High Rollers (not to be confused with the 1986 Nickelodeon game show of the same name). It was the second season of the syndicated series The $128,000 Question, which was filmed in Toronto, and the first program he hosted for what was then known as Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. He hosted the Pillsbury Bake-Off from 1994 to 1998, but Double Dare was his sole game show with the CBS network. It was also the last show he ever hosted for that organization.

While The $128,000 Question game show was still airing and taping episodes, the second season of High Rollers debuted, making Trebek one of only two hosts to emcee shows in both the United States and Canada. The other host was Jim Perry, who was hosting Definition and Headline Hunters in Canada and Card Sharks, which, by coincidence, premiered on the same day as High Rollers in 1978 in the United States. Trebek joined Perry as one of the two hosts to emcee shows in both In 1978, a special bilingual edition of a show called Reach for the Top and its Radio-Canada equivalent, Génies en herbe, put Trebek’s French-speaking side on display. Both of these shows were broadcast in Canada. Throughout the entirety of this episode, Trebek effortlessly switched between the English and French languages.

Trebek, like many other hosts of the day, appeared as a player or panelist on a number of different shows in addition to hosting his own. In 1980, he made one of his guest appearances on NBC’s Card Sharks during a special weeklong episode of the show. Alongside numerous other hosts of game shows (including Allen Ludden, Bill Cullen, Wink Martindale, Jack Clark, Tom Kennedy, Gene Rayburn, and Jim Lange), he participated in a charity tournament that lasted for one week and featured a round-robin format.

Trebek prevailed over Cullen in the tournament’s championship match, claiming victory over him. Trebek was also a celebrity colleague on the NBC game show The Magnificent Marble Machine in 1975 and the NBC word game To Say the Least in 1978, both of which were hosted by Tom Kennedy. Both of these shows aired on NBC. Merrill Heatter-Bob Quigley Productions, the same company that produced both of those events, was also responsible for producing High Rollers, the game show that Alex Trebek was hosting during both of those guest appearances. Trebek also competed on an episode of Celebrity Bowling in 1976, this time paired with Jim McKrell as his partner. The pair prevailed over Dick Gautier and Scatman Crothers in the match they played.

Trebek’s next show for NBC was Battlestars, which he hosted after the cancellation of High Rollers in 1980. The first episode of the te series aired in October 1981, and it lasted for about six months before being pulled from the air in April 1982. After hosting High Rollers and The $128,000 Question in 1978, Alex Trebek took over as host of the syndicated game show Pitfall in September 1981. Since the show was taped in Vancouver, Trebek was required to commute to the city for the tapings. Catalena Productions, which was responsible for making Pitfall, declared bankruptcy, which resulted to the show’s cancellation. As a direct consequence of this, he did not receive payment for that series. Trebek hosted a revival of the Battlestars show called The New Battlestars that ended after thirteen weeks, and then he shot a series of television pilots for other series for game show producer named Merrill Heatter, for whom he had worked hosting High Rollers and Battlestars, as well as for Merv Griffin.

After both of these shows came to an end, Trebek hosted a revival of Battlestars called The New Battlestars. The Heatter pilots consisted of Malcolm, which was an NBC-ordered pilot featuring Trebek with an animated figure as his co-host, and Lucky Numbers, which was an attempt at a revival of High Rollers but did not sell. Neither of these pilots were picked up by a network. When the original host Art Fleming, who was also a friend of Trebek’s, rejected to return to the job due to creative differences, Trebek shot two pilots for a revival of Jeopardy! for Griffin, who was finally persuaded to hire Trebek by Lucille Ball. Griffin subsequently hired Trebek. This resurrection was successful; Trebek took over hosting duties in 1984 and remained in that role until the day he passed away. His final episode as host of Jeopardy! was scheduled to air on Christmas Day 2020; however, on November 23, 2020, Sony announced that the air dates of Trebek’s final week would be postponed, with episodes that were scheduled for the week of December 21–25 being postponed to January 4–8, 2021. His final episode as host of Jeopardy! was to air on Christmas Day 2020.

Trebek made his comeback to daytime television in 1987 as the host of NBC’s Classic Concentration. This was his second show for producer Mark Goodson and he continued to host Jeopardy! at the same time. He was the host of both shows at the same time until the 20th of September, 1991, when the final first-run episode of Classic Concentration was shown (NBC would air repeats until 1993). On February 4, 1991, Trebek succeeded Lynn Swann as the host of NBC’s To Tell the Truth for Goodson-Todman. He held this position until May 31, 1991, when the show’s run came to an end. Trebek created broadcast history in 1991 when he was the first person to simultaneously anchor three American game shows. He accomplished this feat by becoming the first person to host three American game shows at the same time.

Trebek then made his first appearance on the CBS network since he hosted Double Dare in 1994. He did so in order to host the Pillsbury Bake-Off, a competition that he continued to do so until 1998. On April 1st, 1997, Trebek and Pat Sajak, who hosted Wheel of Fortune at the time, switched roles for the day. Pat Sajak was the host of the game show Jeopardy!, while Alex Trebek hosted Wheel of Fortune with Sajak’s wife, Lesly, serving as Trebek’s co-host. Sajak and Vanna White, who also hosted Wheel of Fortune, appeared as participants on the show and donated their winnings to charitable organizations. In 2005, Trebek competed in the Celebrity Poker Showdown and finished in second place in his qualification game, which he ultimately lost to Cheryl Hines.

Trebek made his appearance as a panelist on the June 24, 2018, episode of the To Tell the Truth revival that was broadcast on ABC. In January of 2020, Trebek hosted a primetime special event on Jeopardy! called The Greatest of All Time on ABC. The event pitted the three contestants who had won the most money over the course of the show’s history against one another: Brad Rutter, Ken Jennings, and James Holzhauer.

Life and Relationships

In 1974, Trebek wed the journalist and broadcaster Elaine Callei. Although Trebek took Callei’s daughter Nicky as his own, the couple did not have any children of their own before divorcing in 1981. His wedding to Jean Currivan, a real estate project manager from New York, took place in the year 1990. They had two children, a daughter named Emily and a son named Matthew.

In 1996, Trebek was one of the athletes who carried the Olympic torch over a portion of its voyage from Jacksonville, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia. In 1998, he completed the process to become a naturalized citizen of the United States.

On January 30, 2004, Trebek was returning from a family home in Lake Nacimiento when he fell asleep while driving his pickup truck. He was traveling alone on a rural road in the town of Templeton, located on California’s Central Coast, when the incident occurred. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured. The truck crashed 45 feet over an embankment, sideswiped a row of mailboxes, and finally came to rest against a utility post in a ditch after colliding with the pole. After the mishap, which did not result in any citations for Trebek, he went right back to work taping Jeopardy! four days later.

Creston Farms was a 700-acre (283 ha) horse breeding and training facility located in Creston, California, not far from Paso Robles, which Trebek owned and controlled. There, he produced and trained thoroughbred racehorses. His horse Reba’s Gold is the son of Slew o’ Gold who has won multiple stakes races. In 2008, Trebek sold the business, and these days, the location is used as an event center known as Windfall Farms. This was one item that no doubt added to the net worth of Alex Trebek.

Trebek described himself as a political centrist and registered independent in an interview with Vulture in 2018. He explained that he was neither conservative nor liberal and that he had some libertarian tendencies. Trebek declared that he was a Christian and that he was a believer in God. During a contest for the office of governor in 2018, he stated that he had a Catholic upbringing throughout his infancy and adolescence. Trebek made the announcement on March 6, 2019, that he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the stage IV advanced stage. Prior to receiving a diagnosis, he had been suffering from a recurring stomachache, but he was unaware that this was a sign of the disease at the time.

Trebek noted that his prognosis was poor in a prepared video announcement of the diagnosis. However, he stated that he would fight the cancer aggressively in the hopes of beating the odds and that he would continue hosting the Jeopardy! game show for as long as he was able, joking that his contract obligated him to do so for three more years. In May 2019, Trebek gave an update on the situation, saying that he was doing exceptionally well with treatment and that some of the tumors had shrunk to half their previously observed size; he attributed the better-than-usual outcomes to the prayers and good wishes of his fans and planned to go through several more rounds of chemotherapy. Trebek’s cancer is currently in remission, but he will continue to receive treatment. Trebek was able to complete that cycle of chemotherapy treatments in time to get back to recording the show in August of 2019. Trebek’s subsequent immunotherapy was fruitless, so in September she started back on her chemotherapy treatment.

Trebek updated everyone on the status of his cancer treatment on July 16, 2020. Even though he was still experiencing exhaustion, he said that the treatment was “paying off.” In addition to that, he mentioned that he was excited to record once more. His autobiography, titled The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life, was finally released on July 21, 2020.

In October, Trebek had surgery as part of the treatment he is receiving for his disease. He returned to the game show two weeks later; however, because of the pain he was experiencing as a result of the surgery, he was unable to handle his full workload. As a result, he was required to tape his usual five episodes over the course of two days, and these five episodes would be his last. The 29th of October, 2020 was the day he taped his final show.

Trebek passed away on November 8, 2020, at the age of 80, at his home in Los Angeles. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for the previous 20 months. It was the same ailment that had previously afflicted his predecessor, who was also the show’s first host. Art Fleming, who passed away more than twenty-five years ago. His cremated remains were presented to his wife once the crematorium process was completed. In April of 2022, Trebek’s daughter started making preparations to sell his property in Studio City, thus the estate was sold off in the form of an estate sale.

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All net worth information is collected and calculated from public information. When possible, we also incorporate private tips and comments submitted by the celebrities or their representatives. While we do our best to ensure that our figures are correct, they are only estimates unless otherwise stated. We welcome any refinements or criticism using the comment section below.