Alex Trebek Hospitalized

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Games, Syndication, News

Alex Trebek, host of Jeopardy! since 1984, was admitted to the hospital late Monday night after suffering a heart attack.  Although the incident is being described as minor, Trebek, 67, is expected to remain at LA’s Cedar-Sinai Medical Center a few more days for tests and evaluation. 

Reps for the game show fully expect him to resume taping of the program come January.

Read More | People

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Celebrity Jeopardy Contestants Announced

Posted by Wendy Michaels Categories: Games, Specials, Syndication

I’m not a huge fan of Jeopardy, but I’ve been known to pause while flipping to see if I can answer any questions. It still baffles me that contestants need to provide their answer in the form of a question, but that’s the twist of Jeopardy, I suppose. I do always enjoy the celebrity appearances though for a few reasons: (1) it’s refreshing to see celebs flub up the answers, (2) the money they earn goes to charity, and (3) it always reminds me of those Saturday Night Live sketches with Will Farell as Alex Trebek (and the hilarity of contestant Sean Connery).

This time around the star power is a fun assortment, with Martin Short, Susan Lucci, Regis Philbin, Rachael Ray, James Denton, Doug Savant, Christopher Meloni, Drew Lachey, Carson Kressley, Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Kaczmarek, Joely Fischer, Dana Delany, Mario Cantone, Bebe Neuwirth, Paul Shaffer, Sam Waterston, Soledad O’Brien and Isaac Mizrahi. I look forward to Short and Mizrahi the most—Short is just not around enough these days, and well, Mizrahi just has something kooky that keeps me watching. The show will be taped at Radio City Music Hall on October 5, 7 and 8, with the show to begin a two-week run on November 8th. There are no losers, especially since its all about charity—each celeb is guaranteed to get $25,000 for their choice of charity.

Read More | Yahoo! News

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Jeopardy and Wheel in High Definition

Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Games, Prime Time, HDTV, News

While most of the country will be acknowledging the 5-year anniversary of 9/11, fans of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune will be celebrating the debut of HD programming.  That is, of course, assuming those viewers even have an high-definition TV to appreciate the technology.

King World Productions and Sony Pictures Television are spending over $4 million dollars to get the production and sets ready for this big launch on September 11.  Upgrades will include wider and more detailed sets.  For Jeopardy, this will also include a new video wall to replace the individual TV monitors.  But the question is—will the shows’ primary fan base like change?

And more importantly— how will the personalities be affected by the change?  Let’s be honest—they’ve been around for a while.  Is it really in their best interest to have their features highlighted?  Poor Vanna has probably had enough trouble making sure obsessed viewers don’t see her in the same outfit twice, now she’ll have to make sure her dresses don’t come off bland under increased scrutiny.  And what about Alex Trebek? If he continues to go back and forth again between his clean-shaven and mustached looks, will we be able to see his in-between stubble?  And let’s not get into Pat Sajak’s ‘laugh lines’...

But then again - who cares?  We’ll all be focusing on more important things that day, right?

Read More | TV Week

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