The beloved TV host just wants '30 seconds at the end.'
Alex Trebek hasn't set his final day on Jeopardy! -- but he knows what he'll say when he gets there.
The beloved television host opened up about his future retirement in an interview with ABC News' Michael Strahan on Thursday. In the special, titled What Is Jeopardy? Alex Trebek and America’s Most Popular Quiz Show, Trebek discussed his pancreatic cancer diagnosis and how it's affected his time on the show.
"It'll be a significant moment for me," Trebek said of his final Jeopardy! show. "But I've kind of, in my mind, rehearsed it already."
"What I would do on that day is tell the director, 'Time the show down to leave me 30 seconds at the end. That's all I want,'" he continued. "And I will say my goodbyes and I will tell people, 'Don't ask me who's going to replace me because I have no say whatsoever. But I'm sure that if you give them the same love and attention and respect that you have shown me... then they will be a success and the show will continue being a success. And until we meet again, God bless you and goodbye.'"
Trebek first revealed he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer last March. "I knew as soon as the doctor came back and mentioned the pancreas. I said, 'Uh-oh, it's going to be cancer,'" he told Strahan.
His cancer was in "near remission" earlier this year, but he revealed in September there had been a resurgence in the disease. Trebek said at the time that doctors had decided he'd have to undergo chemotherapy again.
“I have learned something in the past year and it’s this: We don’t know when we’re going to die," he said on Thursdsay's special. "Because of the cancer diagnosis, it’s no longer an open-ended life, it’s a closed-ended life because of the terrible … survival rates of pancreatic cancer. Because of that, and something else that is operating here, people all over America and abroad have decided they want to let me know now, while I’m alive, about the impact that I’ve been having on their existence."
"Throughout my life, I’ve always wondered about how courageous a human being I was," Trebek shared. "I just look at it as it’s a part of life. Does that mean I’m courageous because I’m dealing with it? No. I could be scared to death and I’d still have to deal with it. But I'm not scared to death. So, maybe I am courageous."
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