Laura Coates says ‘Jeopardy’ said no after Alex Trebek attested

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There is no shortage of dramas surrounding the hunt for a new product Risk! server, which is still going on more than a year after Alex Trebek’s death. Now, one of Trebek’s top contenders says that when the time comes, the producers won’t even give her a chance to audition.

In 2018, when Trebek decided whether to step down as host, he selected CNN legal analyst Laura Coates as a possibility to replace him. “There is a lawyer, Laura Coates, she is African-American and she appears on some cable news shows from time to time,” Trebek said in a news release. Interview with TMZ. “Very bright, very personable.”

“Extremely honored and humbled [that] Alex Trebek 1) knows who I am [and] 2) thought I would be a great host of my favorite game show I grew up watching with my family and still watch with my kids,” Coates tweeted at the time.

Although Trebek ended his contract extension in 2020 and continued to host the show until his death, Coates said she emphatically said “no” when she asked about the opportunity.

“I was so excited when he said my name,” Coates told Tamron Hall on Monday while promoting her new book, Pursuit only. “And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, the person I’ve been following all my life, really, even knows my name – let alone think I’m worthy enough to walk in his shoes, which is what which frankly cannot be filled. ‘”

“I asked for the opportunity when the time came they were looking for people who could fill in,” she continued. “I definitely raised my hand and knocked on doors and found them closed. I asked for the chance, and I was told ‘no’, it’s one of those moments where you have to remember to wear your own jersey. “

“You have to remember to continue to be your own champion in other respects, and sometimes the vision you have for yourself – or the things that surprise you, others – don’t match what happens. and that happened there,” she added.

In addition to Coates, Trebek has named LA Kings broadcaster Alex Faust as a worthy successor. Faust was also not invited to try during the host rotation.

Current season of Risk! was hosted by Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings, and Bialik was widely expected to be chosen as the permanent host.