“The Secret History of a Legend: Before the ‘Jeopardy!’ Gavel, Alex Trebek Shocked Audiences with This Unexpected First-Ever TV Hosting Gig—Prepare to Be Stunned!”
Long Before ‘Jeopardy,’ This Was Alex Trebek’s First TV Hosting Job
NBC/courtesy Everett Collection
What To Know
Alex Trebek’s first hosting job was on the Canadian music show Music Hop, which premiered on CBC Television in 1963 when he was just 23 years old.
Music Hop, often compared to American Bandstand, featured live performances and energetic teen audiences, with Trebek introducing acts and engaging with guests during its first season.
Trebek credited his early experience on Music Hop with teaching him the rhythm of live television and the importance of learning to laugh at oneself in show business.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since the world lost the iconic Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek to cancer, on November 8, 2025, at the age of 80. While most people know that Trebek was the longtime host of the trivia game show, many may not remember his very first gig. In 1963, at just 23 years old, Trebek landed his first TV hosting job on a Canadian show called Music Hop, a fast-paced music series that helped introduce a generation of young viewers to rock and pop acts of the day.
What was Alex Trebek’s first TV job?
The show premiered on CBC Television on October 3, 1963, and was often compared to American Bandstand for its energetic studio audience and mix of live performances. Trebek, then still new to broadcasting after graduating from the University of Ottawa, became the face of the Toronto-based program during its first season. Every week, he introduced musicians, chatted with guests, and helped keep the energy high as the in-house band, Norm Amadio and the Rhythm Rockers, played to a crowd of teenagers dancing on camera.
After that first season, Trebek moved on to other projects at CBC, and Music Hop continued for several more years with new hosts, including radio personality Dave Mickie. The series expanded into different Canadian cities, airing versions like Let’s Go from Vancouver and Hootenanny from Winnipeg. By its final episode in 1967, Music Hop had become a national fixture, reaching about a million viewers each week, many of them teens.
Looking back, Music Hop feels like a fitting place for Trebek to begin. He once reflected that his time on Music Hop was where he truly learned the rhythm of live television. He said to the Television Academy about the gig, “If you messed up — and it was easy to mess up because we had no cue cards — you didn’t worry about it. It’s very important in show biz to learn to laugh at yourself. Don’t laugh at the job. Laugh at yourself.”
When did Alex Trebek get hired on Jeopardy?
Trebek took on various CBC game show and radio jobs, before moving to the US in 1973 to host the game show Wizard of Odds, which last for only one year. Throughout the ’70s, Trebek hosted more mostly-forgotten game shows, including multiple seasons of High Rollers, The $128,000 Question, Battlestars, and Pitfall.
In 1984, he began hosting a revival of Jeopardy!, which had originally aired between 1964 and 1979 in multiple versions, all hosted by Art Fleming. Trebek spent over 36 years with the show, with his final episode airing several months after his death, on January 8, 2021.
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