Jennings, a Washington state native and resident, gained many Utah fans due to local ties. He graduated from Brigham Young University after completing a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While at BYU Jennings, a longtime trivia buff, played on the school’s quiz bowl team for three and a half years.
Trebek, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on Nov. 8. The last episode he taped is set to run in early January.
Sony and “Jeopardy!” announced Jennings as a temporary host on Monday.
“We will resume production on 11/30 with a series of interim guest hosts from the ‘Jeopardy!’ family — starting with Ken Jennings,” a tweet says. “Additional guest hosts to be announced.”
Shortly after that tweet went out, Jennings tweeted as well:
“There will only ever be one Alex Trebek, but I’m honored to be helping ‘Jeopardy!’ out in January,” his tweet says.
