Jeopardy! may be amongst the toughest and most venerated game shows of all time, but you can’t accuse it of never having any fun. Alex Trebek was even known to wear costumes at times to deliver clues, but on one day in particular, he went in the opposite direction and took the stage wearing no pants. Current host Ken Jennings rewatched that iconic moment and gave some fantastic context to what inspired Trebek’s bold prank.
The game in question occurred in 2005 during the taping of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, with Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter and Jerome Vered competing. The current host took a trip down memory lane recently and seemed almost as surprised to see a bottomless Alex Trebek as he must have been that day 20 years ago. Check out Jeopardy!’s video on Instagram:
Look at Alex Trebek, so ahead of his time in what would come to be called the “Zoom Mullet” (business on top, party on the bottom) 15 years later.
Ken Jennings noted that home viewers didn’t get as much of an eyeful as those in the studio did that day. The family-friendly quiz show cameras filmed the iconic game show host from the waist-up, not giving America the answer to the question they’d never thought to ask: Does Alex Trebek wear boxers or briefs?
But it wasn’t like the host simply stood up too fast from a WFH meeting. This look was an attempt to relieve some tension during a cutthroat competition that featured two of the would-be winningest champions in Jeopardy!’s history. As Ken Jennings explained:
That was a genuine surprise. Back in the very early days of the show, people would have to walk out. We were all wearing nice pants but for no real reason. We were joking about how, ‘Next time we’ll just do the show without pants. It will be so much simpler.’ Nobody said anything about Alex not wearing pants. He just leapt at the opportunity to come out without pants on. It’s one of my all-time favorite moments on the Jeopardy! stage.
Can I assume Ken Jennings’ classic “What is a hoe?” response is a close-second favorite memory? No?!
I absolutely love that Alex Trebek caught wind of the contestants discussing how no one could see them from behind the podium and decided to take matters into his own hands. As Ken Jennings pointed out in the video, they left Trebek high and dry, because:
None of us did our part.
It was worth it to see such gleeful expressions on Ken Jennings' and Brad Rutter’s faces, with the former even giving a “Wooo!” to the host for breaking some of the tension on a super stressful taping day.
Ken Jennings has said he does his best as the host to help contestants get over their nerves and loosen up to enjoy the moment (and saying “These nuts” so many times is probably also effective), but I doubt Jennings will ever go as far as to take the stage with no pants on. Alex Trebek was truly one of a kind.
Check your local listings to see when Jeopardy! plays in your area, or catch episodes streaming the next day with either a Hulu subscription or a Peacock subscription.
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