PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Alex Trebek is back at work on the set of "Jeopardy!" about a week after sharing his stage-four pancreatic cancer diagnosis. His announcement hit former contestants hard, including a "Jeopardy" champion from Montgomery County.
When the long-time "Jeopardy!" host told the world he was battling cancer, Phil Ricciardi of North Wales was stunned.
"I think my reaction was probably pretty much the same as everybody in the Jeopardy community," he said. "We were all very devastated."
Trebek asked for prayers, and Ricciardi is doing his part.
"Most of us only met him for one day, it was a very significant day in our lives, and he was definitely an integral part of that, so we're all wishing him the absolute best," Ricciardi said.
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Ricciardi, who won on the show in June 2017, says he's joining other former "Jeopardy!" contestants in a private facebook group for an online prayer service Wednesday night.
"It's being led by a rabbi who was a former contenstant," he said.
But that's not all. Ricciardi says this Friday, an online community of former contestants is going to put their brain power to use to raise some money.
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"A bunch of us in the group have promised to watch 'Jeopardy!', keep a stroke count of how many answers we get right, and we're all gonna donate $1 to pancreatic cancer research for every one that we get right," he said. "So, hopefully we can raise a little bit of money for that."
Ricciardi should be able to raise a decent amount of cash for the cause. When he won on the show, he took home $33,000.
He also came away with many memories. He said contestants are "treated like royalty," and Trebek was very gracious and someone he really wanted to impress.
"I think we would all like to hear positive feedback from Alex. He did congratulate me on making a big bet in my first game and winning it," Ricciardi said. "But in the chatter that we had after the second game, I had written down a pretty wrong answer for Final Jeopardy! and he did say, 'Boy, that wasn't even close.'"
A video of the Wednesday night prayer service will be sent over to Trebek.
