- This is "Jeopardy."
And now, here is the host of "Jeopardy,"
Alex Trebek.
- Right on, Jacques.
OK, John, do your thing.
- [John] All right, this is "Jeopardy" show 7,541.
VTR two, 22, 17, air five, 29, 17.
- [Male Crew Member] 10 seconds.
- [John] We said we had a couple of things
to give away, and we do,
and I said it was regarding "Jeopardy," and it is.
It's a brand new app for "Jeopardy" for people on the move.
- Do you want me silent,
or do you want me to say something?
- [Graham] Can I ask you questions, like what you're doing?
- Yeah. - So yeah, what are you doing?
- I'm just going over the games
that we're gonna be taping today
to familiarize myself with the words,
the sense of each clue so that I do not
make too many mistakes when I'm reading the clues
as we tape them.
Takes about an hour and a half
to go over the five games.
- [Graham] So you tape five shows today?
- Yes.
I get here at 6 in the morning.
I go over mail and stuff.
I get the games at 7:30,
and after an hour and a half of work on them,
I'll go into a production meeting with our writers
and the producers, and we'll review the material
to see if there are any conflicts.
The games are selected at random,
so there is the possibility that a clue in one game
might be similar to a clue or a subject in another game,
and we don't want that 'cause if we allow that to remain,
it might appear that we were favoring
one contestant over the others.
- [Graham] What are these notes you're making?
Just to, pronunciation?
- Diacritical, knowing where to stress,
because of the layout of the screen
that contains our clues, some words that should be together
are separated, one on one line,
the other on another line,
and sometimes just naturally we tend to pause
at the end of a line.
So we don't wanna do that.
I wanna run them together if they belong together.
- [Graham] You've been doing this for so long.
Is the five-shows-a-day taping just easy for you,
or does it still seem like a hectic?
- It's a long day. It's a long day, but it's fun.
I circle clues if I think that they bear discussing
in the round table meeting we'll have shortly.
- [Graham] What types of things are worthy of discussion?
What makes you circle a clue?
- If I think it could be improved.
If I think it's repetitive regarding a subject
that came up earlier,
or if I just don't like the way it's written
and I don't feel comfortable reading it that way.
- [Graham] So you pull out the dictionary a good bit?
- Yeah, if there's something that I wanna check on
and I'm not quite sure,
and if I can't find it in the dictionary,
I'll get the researchers to look up something for me
if I need it.
In this case, it's a foreign name.
I have a pretty good idea how to read it,
but I'm not 100% certain,
and I don't wanna appear on camera making a mistake.
There's always a viewer who's gonna catch you on something.
- [Graham] How many clues do you have to go over
every morning on a taping day?
- Well, five games, 350 clues I guess, approximately.
- [Graham] So is your team of writers and researchers,
have they been with you for a long time,
or is there a lot of turnover?
- There is no turnover here.
Working for "Jeopardy" is an annuity.
You start, and you go on forever.
In the early days, we had some writers and researchers
who left after just a few years,
but mostly our writing staff has been with us for ages.
- [Graham] All right, thank you so much for the time.
We'll catch you down the line.
- OK. - Thanks Alex.
- Thank you. - See you later.
- [Graham] All right.
- [Woman in Office] Do you want some coffee or anything?
- [Graham] I'm fine, thank you, thank you so much.
- Are you Norwegian?
- [Graham] No.
- You look so Scandinavian.
- [Graham] Thank you.
- Good morning. - Hi.
- Oh, Alex.
- [Blond Woman] Have you met Graham?
- [Graham] Yeah, we just, I was in his office
for a few minutes.
- Oh you were? - Yeah.
- [Blond Woman] He's ignoring you.
- Here, shoot this.
If you don't do a good job writing clues for "Jeopardy,"
this is what happens to your material.
Here, take a shot at this.
This is one of the original writers on "Jeopardy."
His name is Steve Dorfman.
He's been dead for how many years?
- [People At Table] 13.
- 13 years, and I bet you we're still using
some of his clues.
Do we still have some?
Where's Harry?
- [Woman at Table] I think he's getting coffee.
- Am I the only one at this table
who has almost no interest in the Oscar telecast
this coming weekend?
I mean, it's like it's not happening.
It's not the event that it has been in the past.
- [Man with Glasses] There's no real clear
front runners or big like, "Oh, my God."
- "La La Land" seems to be a favorite.
- [Man with Glasses] Yeah, it's a favorite,
but it's kinda like, it's kind of a soft landing.
- [Blond Woman] I mean, if you give me a list
of ones you'd like,
we'll have some nice ones printed up for you.
- Why are we redecorating this area?
I mean, you cleaned it up because you expected
the head of Sony to come by
and you wanted us to look good.
We got new chairs. I don't understand that.
What was wrong with the chair I've been using
for years with the big 12-inch gash in it?
- [Blond Woman] The stuffing coming out.
- Yeah, what was wrong with that?
- [Blond Woman] You didn't mind.
- I didn't mind.
I've never complained about it.
All right, have you got enough, I hope?
- [Graham] Sure, yeah.
- Now we can get rid of the fake game
and write the real game.
- [Graham] Thank y'all again.
- [Alex] All right, we'll see you out there on the floor.
- [Graham] All right.
- How are you? - I'm fine.
- [Graham] You guys ready for me to come in?
- Yeah, sure.
Forgive me, please tell me your name again.
- [Graham] Graham, like graham cracker.
- OK, cracker.
We don't like crackers here.
- Is that right? - My whole family is crackers.
- [Graham] So do you have a long ride in to the studio,
or do you live pretty close?
- It's a 30-minute ride in at 5:30 in the morning,
and it's an hour ride home
at 5 in the evening.
There's a difference.
- [Graham] What do you do on your commute into work?
Are you reading anything?
Are you just sitting quietly?
- Listening to the radio.
- [Graham] OK.
And do you drive yourself in?
Really?
- Got my trusty Ram truck, and here I come.
- [Graham] What do you like to eat for breakfast every day?
On a day of a taping, especially.
Do you have a diet regime, routine?
- A Diet Coke or a Diet Pepsi or a Diet Dr. Pepper.
I used to have a lot of Milky Ways and stuff,
but I will have an oats and honey nature bar sort of thing.
- He's given up the Twix. - And a doughnut.
No, I have some Twix.
- [Graham] So you love soda and candy?
- Yeah, to a certain extent.
- [Graham] You look like a pretty fit guy.
What's your fitness routine?
- There is none. - None?
- None, absolutely none.
- [Graham] You don't work out at all?
- No. - Wow.
- Don't believe in it.
- [Graham] Why not?
- I don't believe in exercise for the sake of exercise.
If I'm going somewhere, I will walk,
but if I don't have to go anywhere,
I'm not likely to get on the treadmill
and do exercise.
But one of these days I'll change, I'll do it.
- Close your eyes.
But with that being said,
you do a ton of work around your house.
- [Graham] Do you have a green thumb?
- No, I have a brown thumb.
I do labor-type demolition and...
break things and fix them and get my hands dirty.
Literally get my hands dirty.
- [Graham] What are some of your recent projects
or things that you've been working on
around the house lately?
- Helping to renovate my daughter's house,
which she just bought. It's a fixer-upper.
- [Graham] So what does that entail for you,
like manual labor-wise?
- Electrical, plumbing, drywall, demolition,
carpentry, painting.
- [Graham] Wow, so you like to get in there
and actually do it?
- Yeah.
- OK, sir, we are perfection. - Good to go?
All right, thank you.
- You are so very welcome.
- We'll see you later.
- [Graham] All right, looking forward to it.
If you could give any piece of advice
to your 20-year-old self, what would that be?
If you could go back in time
and give that person some advice,
what would it be?
- Try to meet Ava Gardner if you can.
- [John] And now, here is the host of "Jeopardy,"
Alex Trebek.
- [Graham] Why is the show so beloved,
and why has it lasted so long?
- I think it's a combination of the two parts
of your question. It is beloved
because it has lasted so long.
People who are television viewers
relate positively to "Jeopardy"
because there are no great negatives about our program.
We try to emphasize the positive.
We favor learning.
We want you and our contestants to demonstrate that
knowledge is not only important,
but it's valuable in every aspect of your life.
So we reinforce the positives,
and you can't go wrong with that.
We're here to have fun,
or at least we hope you're here to have fun.
We make the assumption that you're here
because you're fans of the show.
Otherwise, why on earth would you decide
to come out on a cold day
and sit in a cold studio for three hours
if you weren't fans of the show?
Maybe you'll learn something.
Maybe we will inspire you to try out
as a possible contestants for "Jeopardy."
But if not, we have these commercial breaks
with no commercials, so we can stare at each other,
we can take naps, or whatever.
Or we can talk.
As Johnny indicated, if you have any questions,
just raise your hand, and I will get to you,
and you can ask a question, anything at all.
No subject is taboo.
And if I don't know the answer to your question,
I will make something up.
Yes, sir.
Proudest moment on the show,
I do not have a proudest moment, to be quite honest.
We've done over 7,500 shows,
and I don't even remember the ones we did yesterday.
Young lady.
Because I'm smart.
And also because they're written
on a sheet of paper in front of me,
and it takes me an hour and a half
to read over all five games that we are taping today
'cause I don't want to make a mistake in
pronunc...pro...pru...
in saying words properly.
What was my first job?
I was a bellhop at a hotel in Canada
in my hometown where my father worked as the chef.
I was 13 years old.
I used to get a big tip. A big tip was 25 cents,
and an average tip was 10 cents.
Yes.
My favorite drink?
To be quite honest with you, it is low-fat milk.
It's almost on a par with chardonnay.
I don't drink liquor, but I do enjoy chardonnay,
and I get up quite often in the middle of the night,
and I'll go to the refrigerator,
and I'll get a full glass of low-fat milk.
I don't know why, but I got into the habit.
I've always liked low-fat milk.
Favorite place to vacation: Yorkshire, England,
a town called Howard, home of the Bruntings.
My wife and I visited there before we got married,
after we got married, after our first son was born,
our only son was born, after our daughter was born.
We walked the moors together
like Heathcliff and Catherine in "Wuthering Heights."
Even in a pouring rainstorm we'd do it.
It's romantic.
And then we go to the doctors to get treated for flu and...
Yes?
The half hour I get to spend on stage
with three very bright people.
I don't like spending time with stupid people.
So I have very few friends.
- Don't, don't, don't.
- He's a friend.
- [Graham] How did you get this job?
- They phoned me one day and said,
"We're bringing 'Jeopardy' back on the air.
We'd like you to host it."
And I said, "Will you pay me?"
And they said, "Yes," I said, "OK, I'm your man."
- [Graham] Has there ever been any point where you
got tired of doing
this job, "Jeopardy?" - No.
- It's been so many years.
What makes you keep wanting to come back
to this format, to this game?
- Well, they pay me well,
and I enjoy doing the work,
so there's no downside for me.
I really enjoy what I'm doing
and have for the past 33 years.
Do I have any?
Do I have any plans for retirement?
No.
Do you know something I don't?
Not everybody likes me.
- [Graham] How much longer do you want to
continue to be the host of the show?
- Oh, probably another 10 or 15 minutes.
As long as my skills have not diminished to the point
where I feel embarrassed
because I'm making a lot of mistakes,
and as long as the show retains its popularity,
and as long as I enjoy the time I spend taping "Jeopardy."
- [Graham] Finally, yesterday you went legitimately viral
as they say with the clip of you
reciting the rap lyrics.
- [Alex] Started from the bottom, now we're here.
Started from the bottom, now the whole team here.
Six-foot, 7-foot, 8-foot bunch,
Young Money militia, and I am the commissioner.
You don't want to start Weezy 'cause the F is for finisher.
- [Graham] So everyone's been asking me
since they knew I was coming out here
if you would give us another quick recitation
of some lyrics that are, they're not like filthy
or explicit, but of the biggest song in the world right now.
It's another rap song.
I've got them printed out here.
Would you be willing to recite this in the same?
- Let me see. - Sure.
- If I can read it.
Rain drops, drop tops, bankrolls on me keep me company.
We did the most, pull up in ghosts.
Dabbin' on them like the usual,
I'm young and rich, plus I'm boujee.
- [Graham] We have one more if you have time
for just one more.
This is from Jay-Z and DJ Khaled.
- Another one, Wraith talk, Wraith talk.
Here we go, talking that safe talk.
My swag different.
My bag different.
My wife Beyoncé, I brag different.
Special cloth talk, major key.
- [Graham] Alex, thank you so much.
- I have no idea what I just read.
- Thank you so much, that was wonderful.
Thanks for all your time.
This has been a thrill.
- Take care. - Thank you.
- All right, thank you again. - Thank you.
- Oh, my pleasure. - Thank you so much.