Sony
A couple of months ago, Jeopardy! saw a new Ken Jennings emerge in the form of James Holzhauer, a professional sports bettor who essentially broke the game thanks to his aggressive playing style and a treasure trove of knowledge that would all but assure he’d win a $20 gift card whenever he played bar trivia.
Over the course of his 33-game run, Holzhauer repeatedly shattered his own single-game records on his way to racking up almost $2.5 million in winnings (a sizeable chunk of which went to the IRS).
Prior to Holzhauer’s run, Alex Trebek announced that he’d been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
A Message from Alex Trebek: pic.twitter.com/LbxcIyeTCF
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) March 6, 2019
Things initially looked pretty grim—especially based on the pain he had to deal with while taping—but he thankfully appears to be kicking cancer’s ass on his way to recovery. There’s speculation he’ll hand the answer cards off to someone else when his contract expires in 2020, but as of right now, he shows no signs of stopping.
There’s been an outpouring of support for Trebek since he announced his diagnosis, and according to Yahoo, Holzhauer is doing what he can to help the cause after deciding to use some of his winnings in honor of the Jeopardy! host.
The outlet reports that the phenom has donated $1,109.14—a nod to his daughter’s birthday—to a walk dedicated to raising money to fight pancreatic cancer.
It’s likely we haven’t seen the last of Holzhauer, as Ken Jennings has said he believes a showdown is essentially inevitable.
In the immortal words of Bart Scott:
Let’s make it happen.