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Alex Trebek hosted Danger! for 36 years, which means that many fans of the series have watched it for most of their lives. Because of this legacy, it was hard to imagine anyone else taking his place. But when Trebek died of pancreatic cancer in November 2020, the show was faced with that reality. Danger! champion Ken Jennings was made a temporary guest host before the show entered a series of guest hosts set to choose a permanent replacement for Trebek. Today, Jennings and Maim Bialik share hosting duties, however Bialik backed down for now in support of striking Hollywood writers.

In 2020, before Trebek's passing, Jennings was already in talks with the guest host, if needed. In a new interview, the former champion revealed that his last conversation with his predecessor was the night before Trebek died and that Trebek gave some advice that Jennings uses on the show today. Read on to find out what the TV legend said to his successor.

RELATED: Danger! Producer explains 'painful to watch' episode amid backlash .

In a new interview with The last podcast on the left , Jennings was asked if Trebek was exactly what he seemed to be Danger! in real life.

"He really was," Jennings said, before adding, "I mean, he was more fun… During commercials, he would tell jokes, go into the crowd. He liked to warm up the crowd himself and do little impressions. He was a very lighthearted, funny guy. But, you know, he had to push the show forward because that's the job description.

The 49-year-old continued: "The things you think you know about him: that he's smart, that he actually knew all of these answers and that he wanted you to know he knew them, that he was highly educated and sort of an old school gentleman – all of that is 100 percent true.

Jennings then described his last memories of Trebek.

"I actually ended up talking to him about what turned out to be the day before he died, about hosting guests for him," Jennings said. "We didn't know that. We thought: Oh, he'll be fine. He will bounce back. He will be the host again . I was just going to replace. And we talked about the game.

Trebek gave her advice on hosting by sharing her own philosophy. "He gave me the impression that he has always done it over the years, which is to say that he did not want to be the center of attention on Danger! . He was never announced as the "star of Danger! he has always been "the host of Danger! "because he thought the game itself and the contestants should be the star of it," Jennings explained.

The current host said he is following Trebek's lead. "I'm doing the same thing. It shouldn't be about me. It should be about those three people and the clues and that's what people want," he added.

Jennings shared more chat details with E! News in January 2021. "We had talked about the possibility of me being a guest for him at some point and he was so sweet," the host revealed. "He was thanking me very sincerely for helping me and I was like, 'Alex, you gave us 37 years. We should be thanking you. It's the least I can do.'"

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Speaking to E! News, Jennings shared that he knows people would rather see Trebek than him and revealed he felt the same way. ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

"To be frank, nobody wants me there," he said. At the time, the show used Jennings and other guest hosts. "I don't want me there. We all want to see Alex there for 100 years in a perfect world and, you know, I really wanted to do my best not to disappoint him and Danger! viewership was down, so I felt a lot of pressure.

In an interview with hello america around the same time, Jennings said "You can't fill shoes like Alex Trebek's. It was just a legend and, you know, I'm like everyone else: when I hear this music, I don't want to see an acting host. In a perfect world, I want to see Alex Trebek."

RELATED: Danger! Champion James Holzhauer says the recent winner "should be banned for life".

Jennings and Bialik started hosting Danger! definitively in September 2021, continued a brief and controversial passage by the series' former executive producer Mike Richards . Recently, the show made headlines decide to film new episodes amid the Writers Guild of America strike. The current executive producer, Michael Davies , announced that the series would use clues written before the strike began in May 2022, as well as recycled clues from previous episodes.

Amid the strike, Bialik backed out of hosting the event in solidarity with the WGA. Jennings continued to host the show, which drew criticism that he would cross the picket line. Jennings defended himself on X, formerly Twitter, noting that Trebek continued to host the show during the WGA strike in 2007-2008.