Latest news with #AlexTrebek
Miami Herald
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
How Steve Harvey changed ‘Family Feud': ‘I turned it into a comedy show'
ATLANTA - Like Alex Trebek on "Jeopardy!" and Bob Barker on "The Price Is Right," Steve Harvey found a match made in game show heaven with "Family Feud." Harvey, 68, has been hosting the show forlonger than original host Richard Dawson. Since 2010, he has presided over more than 2,700 syndicated episodes and another 100-plus "Celebrity Family Feud" episodes on ABC. Harvey, an Atlanta resident who made it big as a stand-up comic and sitcom star in the 1990s, has shot most of his syndicated show in metro Atlanta, but producers this season moved the celebrity version from Los Angeles to Tyler Perry Studios. The series returned Thursday night on ABC with Taraji P. Henson vs. Jennifer Hudson, followed by Dan Patrick vs. Rich Eisen. Harvey spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on set in May after actress andAtlanta resident Kat Graham competed against fellow actress Francia Raisaon an episode scheduled to air July 17. He changed "Family Feud" to fit him: "I made a conscious decision when I first got the show that I had to make it more than a show about a survey. I don't think people would tune in or care about what 100 people think about anything. I made the show about the contestants and our relationship and their answers. It doesn't matter what's on the board. I'm going to have fun with your answer. I turned it into a comedy show." Time has passed - and so has his hair: "Most of the younger generation don't know about my stand-up. They think I'm a game show host and motivational speaker. My makeup artist said she didn't know I ever had hair. She thought I was born a bald-headed baby. I have to understand how long I've been doing this. When I had my sitcom out, she wasn't even born." On Los Angeles losing business to other locations: "L.A. was king of the castle for so long. But they have to step up their game, or they're going to be obsolete. It makes sense to come to Tyler Perry Studios. This lot is as good as anything in L.A." (After the interview, California greatly enhanced its tax credit program.) On Dawson, the man who made "Family Feud" famous in the 1970s and 1980s: "He was the dude. And that was a different time. He kissed everybody. And he got married to one of the contestants!" How "Celebrity Family Feud" is different from the regular version: "The timing of the show is different. The way you pace the show is different. A lot of the actors and musicians don't know how the game works. You have to tell them to get in the huddle. You have to walk them through it." Favorite guest: "Anthony Anderson's mom Doris (Hancox). I've known her for years. I used to hold a domino tournament in L.A., and she would come. She says whatever she wants to say. I don't know how we handled it. She is so serious, but she's so funny, too." Notable upcoming guest: "E-40 was part of Lil Jon's crew. He is such a special guy. He's a solid dude. I told the story about what happened at this lunar ball in LA. I saw one of his crew members being disrespectful to a woman, and E-40 took him into a trailer. When the dude came out, he looked different. He apologized to that woman. That spoke volumes to the type of guy E-40 is. Don't disrespect women!" His friendship with Cedric the Entertainer, part of "The Steve Harvey Show" and the Kings of Comedy tour: "Ced is my best friend in this business. He's a special human being. We've never had a dispute or fall out. People ask me who is the funniest person alive. It's Cedric the Entertainer. Nobody makes me laugh harder." Retirement? "I don't see it right now. I've always been a worker. My dad ingrained that in me. Work hard. Don't ask for anything. Wait til you have the money to do it. I just work." --- If you watch "Celebrity Family Feud," 8 p.m. ET Thursdays on ABC, available on Hulu. --- Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
New York Times
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Ken Jennings: Trivia and ‘Jeopardy!' Could Save Our Republic
When I first stepped behind the host lectern on the quiz show 'Jeopardy!,' I was intimidated for two reasons. Most obviously, I had the hopeless task of filling the very large shoes of Alex Trebek, the legendary broadcaster and pitch-perfect host who'd been synonymous with the show since 1984. But I was also keenly aware that the show was one of TV's great institutions, almost a public trust. Since I was 10 years old, I'd watched Alex Trebek carve out a safe space for people to know things, where viewers get a steady diet of 61 accurate (and hopefully even interesting) facts every game. And I wondered: Even if 'Jeopardy!' could survive the loss in 2020 of its peerless host, could it survive the conspiracy theories and fake news of our post-fact era? Facts may seem faintly old-timey in the 21st century, remnants of the rote learning style that went out of fashion in classrooms (and that the internet search made obsolete) decades ago. But societies are built on facts, as we can see more clearly when institutions built on knowledge teeter. Inaccurate facts make for less informed decisions. Less informed decisions make for bad policy. Garbage in, garbage out. I've always hated the fact that 'trivia,' really our only word in English for general-knowledge facts and games, is the same word we use to mean 'things of no importance.' So unfair! Etymologically, the word is linked to the trivium of medieval universities, the three fundamental courses of grammar, rhetoric and logic. And much of today's so-called trivia still deals with subjects that are fundamentally academic. Watch a game of 'Jeopardy!' tonight, or head down to your local pub quiz, and you're sure to be asked about scientific breakthroughs, milestones of history and masterpieces of art. Trivia, maybe — but far from trivial. There might also be questions about pop lyrics and sports statistics, but even those are markers of cultural literacy, the kind of shared knowledge that used to tie society together: the proposition that factual questions could be answered correctly or not, that those answers matter, and that we largely agreed on the authorities and experts who could confirm them. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBC
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
This UBC grad won Jeopardy! on Tuesday night. Who is Brendan Liaw?
Brendan Liaw has been preparing to be on Jeopardy! since he was about eight years old. "I think pretty early on I realized like oh OK, I know quite a few of these things," the Metro Vancouver resident told CBC's The Early Edition host Stephen Quinn. "It kind of just ballooned into a dream. I did Reach For The Top in high school, which Alex Trebek hosted briefly, so that also helped." Now, the University of B.C. graduate and self-proclaimed "stay-at-home son" has finally watched his dream come true. Liaw spoke with CBC after his first episode of Jeopardy! aired on television. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You won your episode last night. Congratulations. How are you feeling? To be totally honest, it still feels kind of not real. My dad was in the audience and a couple of friends, and the past two months I've just been texting them every couple of weeks being like, "Hey, I did that right?" Like I didn't just hallucinate being on stage and I'm not gonna watch the episode yesterday and see three strangers and not me. That's weird. I could see having kind of an out-of-body experience while that was going on. Oh yeah, watching it yesterday, I was like, oh wow, I do not remember most of what happened. How did you prepare? I would say it's pretty much been like a lifelong thing of, you know, paying attention to the news and things that you read and paying attention in classes. But when I got the call, I obviously went into study mode with lots of flash cards and practising on the buzzer. So just trying to get those things up to standard for the show. Jeopardy! is such a variety of topics and so many questions. How did you decide on categories? Did you go back and look at all shows to see did categories reoccur? Yes. So there's a wonderful archive of pretty much every game that's been played. I have episodes banked, I had a log of shows on my PVR. So I did watch a lot of Jeopardy! in the four weeks before going on the show. You've been preparing for how long? You get the call like four weeks out before actually taping. But again, like, I feel like it's like a lifelong thing for most people that you're sort of always learning and really trying to, you know, increase your knowledge of the world. How hard is it to perform on stage when you're competing against these other super smart people and you're there behind the podium and the questions start getting fired at you? You don't really have time to even be nervous. You just have to go out and play. You don't find out when you're playing until like five minutes before. They don't draw names until five minutes before you're going up on stage. It is hard. I don't know if you watched yesterday's game but it was a bit of a nail biter. It wasn't looking good for me at the half but I was lucky with the categories in the second round and managed to rebound and get the win. What were the categories in the second round that saved you? U.S. history was one of them, which I think I did OK in. There was a movie category. Plays and playwrights was another. Were you thinking here I am, Canadian, and I'm gonna answer all these questions about U.S. history? Yeah, but I mean, I did OK. I got three of them. The episode, of course, was taped earlier this year, and you've had to keep all of this a secret until now. Yes, hence the feeling that this is surreal because you can't say anything about it and only, I don't know, 20 other people know that you did it for like two months and you're like, uh, was this just a prank? So you won Tuesday night, which means you're going to be on Wednesday night's episode. And none of us know, of course, what happened there, and you're not going to reveal that obviously. You're probably under some contractual obligation that's signed in your own blood. Yes, in my own blood. Yeah, if I tell you, I think Sony gets my soul. What has this whole experience done for you? I guess still an appreciation for learning, but also a recognition that this is kind of a crazy thing to do. I'm pretty proud of myself for even just getting on this stage because I think a lot of people try and don't make it. I guess a new found sense of confidence, I guess, in myself, which is nice. Is general knowledge underrated? Because we all have Google now and if you need to know anything you can. But it's very different in your case just to be able to pull things out of your brain. I do think it's very underrated. I think it's a muscle that is underutilized these days. And I think it, it's underrated in value. I think people don't realize that knowing things off of your head is maybe actually kind of good for you instead of just pulling out your phone. It's also kind of fun. It's fun to be able to be like, yeah, I know that thing, like I know the capital of, I don't know, Venezuela, or something like that. Even if it's not particularly useful, it might be one day. You might end up on Jeopardy! Exactly. And finally, all that book learning is useful. You've graduated from UBC. Where are you heading now? I actually applied to law school for this fall. I'm actually waiting on UBC to get back to me. I've been rejected from every other school I applied to. So it's just UBC now. Yeah. I mean, pending the results of my time on Jeopardy!, that's probably the plan if I get in — some more book learning.
Toronto Star
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
An Alaska Mother's Day tradition: Mingling with ice age survivors on a farm
PALMER, Alaska (AP) — It is one of Alaska's favorite Mother's Day traditions, getting up close and personal with animals that have survived the ice age. All moms get a daisy and free admission Sunday at the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, about an hour's drive north of Anchorage. Once inside they will have the chance to view 75 members of the musk ox herd, including three young calves just getting their feet under them. Also a draw is an old bull named Trebek, named after the late 'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek, a benefactor of the facility.
Washington Post
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
An Alaska Mother's Day tradition: Mingling with ice age survivors on a farm
PALMER, Alaska — It is one of Alaska's favorite Mother's Day traditions, getting up close and personal with animals that have survived the ice age. All moms get a daisy and free admission Sunday at the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, about an hour's drive north of Anchorage. Once inside they will have the chance to view 75 members of the musk ox herd, including three young calves just getting their feet under them. Also a draw is an old bull named Trebek, named after the late 'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek, a benefactor of the facility.
