Ken Jennings discusses the 'pressure' of hosting 'Jeopardy!'
"Jeopardy!" super champ Ken Jennings will be temporarily taking over hosting duties following the death of longtime host, Alex Trebek.
"It's nerve-wracking to know the legacy and the size of the shoes you're filling," Jennings recently told E! Online.
"Just to be frank, nobody wants me there. I don't want me there," he continued. "We all want to see Alex there for 100 years in a perfect world and, you know, I really just wanted to do the best I could so as not to let him down and 'Jeopardy!' viewers down, so I felt a lot of pressure."
Fortunately, he was able to get some expert advice from the master himself. Jennings recently told "Good Morning America" that he spoke to Trebek the weekend he died.
"He was frail but he was still very much Alex," Jennings shared. "I remember him just being very confident in me to be a guest host if he ever needed that. We were hoping we'd have him with us for longer, but I remember -- I was reminded of the thing he always emphasized about the show which was he's not the star of the show. You know, the host is not the star of 'Jeopardy!'"
Jennings gave more details about that conversation to E! Online. "We had talked about the possibility of me guest hosting for him at some point and he was so sweet," Jennings said.
"He was thanking me very genuinely for helping out and I was like, 'Alex, you gave us 37 years. We should be thanking you. It's the least I could do," Jennings said.
As for how Trebek might rate his performance, Jennings said, "I think he would have some serious words on stuff I needed to work on -- hopefully a C+."
Jennings will take over as guest host starting on Monday. A successor to Trebek has yet to be officially announced.
