Alex Trebek mentioned quitting Jeopardy! in an explosive email he sent to producers of the show after some drama erupted over a segment on the show. His anger at Sony Pictures Television stems from a situation that happened on Jeopardy! Kid s when one of the young contestants wasn’t allowed to play in the Final Round because she was in the red. Trebek was unhappy that they wanted to re-tape a scene.
The email leaked is part of the Sony dump by a group of hackers known as Guardians of Peace. Some private emails from Sony Pictures Television is being shared with Radar Online, which is the source of this leaked correspondence between Trebek and Jeopardy! producers.
In a letter to Trebek, one of the producers tells the game show host the girl was “visibly upset” and ran to her mother backstage crying. Her mother and the producer had to calm the girl down before returning to the set.
The mother wrote a letter to producers expressing her shock over Trebek’s handling of the situation. She says she “was quite a bit taken back” with Trebek’s reaction. She accuses the Jeopardy! host in her letter for not consoling her daughter backstage.
“If he had taken the time, he would have known, like you do, that my daughter is not a sore loser, and does not become emotional solely over losing a game. She was upset about not being able to completely play the game to the end.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for that.”
A producer responded in an email that although “Alex’s intentions were good,” they would approach him about re-taping the scene in an effort “to appease an upset mother who could start another feeding frenzy about Alex’s perceived insensitivity.”
Alex Trebek was none too happy about how he was being perceived. He even felt “vilified,” his email reveals.
“If you all think I should retape the opening, I will, but I want to say that for 30 years I’ve defended our show against attacks inside and out. But it doesn’t seem to operate both ways. When I’m vilified, corporate (and certainly legal) always seems to say ‘don’t say anything and it’ll blow over,’ and I’m not feeling support from the producers, and that disappoints the s**t out of me.”
“If I’m making mistakes and saying things you don’t like, maybe it’s time for me to move on. It’s not a threat, but I want to let you know how I’m feeling.”
Executive Producer of Jeopardy! Harry Friedman writes in a separate email that Trebek’s anger simmered down eventually.
Alex Trebek isn’t quitting Jeopardy! despite the tone of the fiery emails that are now publicly released.
According to the L.A. Times , Sony is being hit with class-action lawsuits from current and past employees over information being hacked. They say in a 45-page document that “Culver City studio was negligent by ignoring warnings that its computer system was prone to attack,” therefore personal information has gotten out over a system they warned the corporation that was “failing.”
[Image via HLN]
