- Jeopardy! is my wife's and my favorite show.
Every night I'm home, we watch Jeopardy!.
We try to answer the questions,
we have a little thing where we put it on pause,
and then we talk it over
and see if we've got the right answer.
And we come back and often we don't, but, we love it.
I used to live here in Los Angeles,
and one beautiful summer evening,
my wife and I were at the Hollywood Bowl.
And as we're sitting there,
we look down the aisle and Alex Trebek was walking
up the aisle, and you could hear people murmuring,
"That's Alex Trebek, that's Alex Trebek, that's Alex Trebek."
And before you knew it, there was a little clapping,
and it rose to the point where he got a standing ovation,
going to his seat.
It was wonderful.
And he was so kind and warm and gracious and humble.
It was a wonderful, wonderful thing to behold.
To tell you the truth, I have always loved Jeopardy!.
And,
when it came,
possible for me to be a host,
I thought, well, there's no other show I'd rather do,
and there's no show that would work with being a journalist
that I could come in and actually have fun and not walk away
and go like,
"Ooh, I just did X show or what?"
No, it's Jeopardy!.
I think Jeopardy! is...
It'll burnish my career.
I'm not sure if it's what I wanted to bring.
I just wanted to make sure that I didn't walk away from here
looking like an idiot.
You know I just wanted to be as smart as this group
around here and these folks up here, they're incredible.
My wife,
I hemmed and hawed for a second,
should I, shouldn't I?
She said, "Of course you should.
This'll be terrific, you'll have a great time.
You will have fun.
Go do it."
So yeah, it was my wife.
She was the biggest booster.
Was I nervous?
Yes. This is a totally different animal.
You know, I've been doing the journalism thing for,
more than 30 years and I could almost do it in my sleep.
I don't, but well yes I do.
Sometimes I'm so tired I do.
But, this is different, this is different.
I'm often talking to one camera.
If I mess up, I get to do it again.
I write down mostly.
Most of the time what I'm saying, I get to think it through.
This is fast paced.
This is, bam, bam, bam.
You guys move really quickly.
And you got different cameras,
different things to think about, who's in front?
Who's...
It's a lot.
It's been a challenge, but a fun challenge.
Being a journalist does help you prepare,
especially when you've got these little interviews here
with folks, that's fun.
And also, I mean, a lot of the topics you talk about,
are the things that I have either seen or done,
or places I've been.
So that part is wonderful, but it's also, enlightening.
I mean, that's part of why I liked watching Jeopardy!.
I learn things watching Jeopardy!.
And I certainly learned a lot being
on Jeopardy! for two weeks.
Well I have a colleague who's also a colleague
of yours here, and,
he told me,
"Just go have fun."
And I must admit,
I didn't get to that point until the end of my two weeks.
But I finally did get to the point,
where I was having fun.
Going into it,
I was more nervous,
than having fun,
but as it went along and everybody here is so helpful.
My gosh, everybody here is so helpful.
So, when I did stumble, which I did,
you guys were here to pick me up.
And it also made me feel that I was in a comfortable place.
So I finally got to the point, where I was having fun.
Well everybody I work with is really smart.
So I think they would all do a good job.
Lesley Stahl would be pretty terrific.
She knows a lot.
So, yeah, I'd recommend Lesley.
- [Interviewer] (indistinct) hopefully.
(laughs)
- Lesley come to Jeopardy!.
Yeah I think she'd be a terrific candidate.
The contribution is phenomenal.
And it's to a small,
organization in my hometown.
It's Media Fellowship House.
Not for the media that I work in but,
it's the name of my hometown.
And Fellowship has been around for more than 75 years.
It was started to,
get a dialogue going between people of different races,
and religions and ethnicities.
And it has grown over the years to be a place that helps,
students get into college,
and helps them with scholarships.
And it also, one of the biggest things is to help,
first time home buyers.
So it helps them go through the whole process,
of trying to get mortgage, and insurance,
and all that sort of thing.
So they are a very small organization that has a big impact
on the community.
I don't understand how they do what they do.
It's really amazing.
I mean, one young lady said that she studied a book
of the Bible or something.
A book of anecdotes of the Bible.
That's what you do before you come on Jeopardy!.
She said,
"Oh yeah, but I do that for just about every topic."
So,
just read, be involved, be engaged,
watch the news, watch 60 Minutes.
Know what's going on in the world.
I think that's what makes you a good contestant.