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50 free Alex Trebek trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Alex Trebek hosted Jeopardy! for 37 seasons, from the 1984 revival until his death in 2020, and along the way set a Guinness World Record, swapped jobs with Pat Sajak for a day and played himself in everything from Cheers to The X-Files. This quiz starts in Sudbury, Ontario and the CBC, moves through The Wizard of Odds, High Rollers and Classic Concentration, and covers the Jeopardy! years, his philanthropy, the pancreatic cancer fight and the tributes that followed. About a third of the questions are easy for regular viewers, a third are medium and the rest are for game-show historians. Every answer is checked against Trebek's biography.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year did Alex Trebek begin hosting the revived Jeopardy!?
1984
He shot two pilots for Merv Griffin's revival after original host Art Fleming declined to return, and stayed 37 seasons.
Q 02In which Canadian city was Trebek born?
Sudbury, Ontario
A mural of him now covers a wall of Sudbury Secondary School, where he went to high school.
Q 03What was Trebek's first given name?
George
He shared it with his father, George Edward Trebek, a chef who had emigrated from Ukraine.
Q 04Trebek's father emigrated as a child from which country?
Ukraine
The family name was originally Terebeychuk; his mother was a Franco-Ontarian.
Q 05Why did Trebek drop out of a military college in Quebec?
He was asked to shave his head
He had also nearly been expelled from boarding school shortly before.
Q 06What was Trebek's first job, at age 13?
Bellhop
It was at the hotel where his father worked as a chef.
Q 07From which school did Trebek graduate with a philosophy degree in 1961?
University of Ottawa
He later gave the school around $10 million, and it named its alumni hall after him in 2015.
Q 08For which broadcaster did Trebek begin his career in 1961?
CBC
He read national radio news and covered events from curling to horse racing.
Q 09What was Trebek's first hosting job, a 1963 Canadian TV program?
Music Hop
Three years later he hosted the high-school quiz show Reach for the Top.
Q 10Which Canadian high-school quiz show did Trebek host starting in 1966?
Reach for the Top
In 1978 he hosted a bilingual special with its French counterpart, Génies en herbe, switching between languages.
Q 11Why did Trebek reportedly lose out on hosting Hockey Night in Canada in 1971?
His mustache
Producer Ralph Mellanby preferred him but his boss did not want a mustached host; Dave Hodge got the job.
Q 12What was the first US game show Trebek hosted after moving south in 1973?
The Wizard of Odds
It aired on NBC; High Rollers followed a year later.
Q 13Which dice-based NBC game show did Trebek host in two stints, 1974–76 and 1978–80?
High Rollers
It was a Merrill Heatter-Bob Quigley production, and he later shot a failed revival pilot called Lucky Numbers.
Q 21Which cooking competition did Trebek host on CBS from 1994 to 1998?
Pillsbury Bake-Off
It was his first return to CBS since Double Dare.
Q 22With whom did Trebek swap shows on April Fools' Day 1997?
Pat Sajak
Sajak hosted Jeopardy! while Trebek ran Wheel of Fortune with Sajak's wife Lesly as co-host.
Q 23Who beat Trebek in his qualifying game on Celebrity Poker Showdown in 2005?
Cheryl Hines
He finished second at the table.
Q 24Which three champions faced off in the 2020 ABC special Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time?
Q 14Trebek's only CBS game show shared its name with a later Nickelodeon hit. What was it?
Double Dare
Not the slime-filled kids' show; this was a 1976–77 Goodson-Todman quiz.
Q 15Which 1980 Card Sharks charity tournament of game-show hosts did Trebek win?
He beat Bill Cullen in the final
The three-week round robin also featured Tom Kennedy, Jack Clark and Jim Lange.
Q 16Trebek was never paid for hosting which syndicated show after its producer went bankrupt?
Pitfall
It taped in Vancouver; Catalena Productions folded before paying him.
Q 17Which Hollywood legend encouraged Merv Griffin to hire Trebek for the Jeopardy! revival?
Lucille Ball
Original host Art Fleming, a friend of Trebek's, had declined to return over creative differences.
Q 18Who was the original Jeopardy! host whom Trebek succeeded?
Art Fleming
Fleming also died of pancreatic cancer, a little over 25 years before Trebek.
Q 19Which NBC show did Trebek host simultaneously with Jeopardy! from 1987 to 1991?
Classic Concentration
It was his second show for Mark Goodson; the final first-run episode aired September 20, 1991.
Q 20In 1991 Trebek became the first person to host three US game shows at once by taking over which one?
To Tell the Truth
He replaced Lynn Swann on February 4, 1991 and stayed until the run ended that May.
Brad Rutter, Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer
They were the three highest money winners in the show's history.
Q 25On which ABC show did Trebek fill in for Charles Gibson for a week in 1995?
Good Morning America
It was a return to the broadcast-news roots he had at the CBC.
Q 26In The X-Files episode Jose Chung's From Outer Space, Trebek played what?
A Man in Black
Jesse Ventura played the other Man in Black; the episode aired April 12, 1996.
Q 27How many game show episodes had Trebek hosted when Guinness recognized his record in 2014?
6,829
The record for most episodes of the same program by one presenter had belonged to Bob Barker.
Q 28Trebek apologized after moderating a 2018 governor's debate in which state?
Pennsylvania
He spoke for 41% of the Tom Wolf–Scott Wagner debate and admitted he had misunderstood a moderator's role.
Q 29Trebek announced which NHL team's third-overall pick, in Jeopardy! style, at the 2020 draft?
Ottawa Senators
The pick was Tim Stützle, just a month before Trebek's death.
Q 30Who was Trebek's first wife, a broadcaster he married in 1974?
Elaine Callei
They divorced in 1981; he adopted her daughter Nicky.