‘Jeopardy!’ Host Alex Trebek Fights Back Tears After Contestant’s Touching Tribute in Final Round

In the midst of Jeopardy!‘s Tournament of Champions, one very moving moment in the Final Jeopardy portion of the show had host Alex Trebek fighting back tears. Instead of writing down the correct answer for the Final Jeopardy question, contestant Dhruv Gaur wrote, “We [love] you Alex,” and the host could be heard getting emotional over the lovely tribute. The moving message comes after Trebek announced his battle with pancreatic cancer earlier this year.

The Final Jeopardy question read, “In the title of a groundbreaking 1890 exposé of poverty in New York City slums, these three words follow “How the.” Now, the answer they were looking for was “How the Other Half Lives,” but Gaur’s answer captured way more hearts. In fact, it even prompted users to create the hashtag, “#WeLoveYouAlex,” on Twitter for Jeopardy! fans everyone to express their appreciation for the longtime host.

“I truly hope Alex Trebek knows how much joy he has brought into our homes for so many years,” one user wrote. Another Jeopardy! fan, rightly, wrote that Gaur’s message was one of the best answers of all-time, “Strong contender for best FJ message of all time by @dhruvg_ right here.” Yet another fan wrote that, like Trebek himself, the moment likely brought many Jeopardy! viewers to near tears. They wrote, “Alex Trebek getting choked up at a heartfelt final jeopardy answer. The instant welling up of tears and emotion no viewer expected to have tonight. what a moment”

It’s wonderful to see such a large outpouring of support for the Jeopardy! host. As previously mentioned, this moving Final Jeopardy moment came months after Trebek originally revealed back in March that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. “Now, just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer,” he said at the time in a video from the Jeopardy! set. “Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working. And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.”

Trebek had finished his first round of chemotherapy and was seeing positive results. But, in September, he revealed on Good Morning America that he had experienced an unfortunate setback in his treatment and would have to resume chemotherapy.

Throughout his stressful journey, Trebek can definitely count on his fans to support him every step of the way.