Alex Trebek Net Worth

How much was Alex Trebek worth?

Net Worth:$70 Million
Profession:Professional TV Personality
Date of Birth:July 22, 1940 (aged 80)
Country:Canada
Height:
5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)

About Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek (born as George Alexander Trebek) was the long-time host of the popular game show ‘Jeopardy’. Throughout his many years on television, his career took him through multiple roles presenting, acting and guest-starring. Which is why his dream of starring on TV took a while to get off the ground. It is estimated, that at the height of his career Trebek earned a salary of $18 million dollars per year.

He was born in Sudbury, Canada (although he had dual American-Canadian citizenship). 59 years in the entertainment industry brought him his fame, and he became one of the world’s most loved television presenters.

When he was 12, Trebek left Sudbury to go to boarding school at the University of Ottowa, and actually stayed there to study degree level philosophy. However, he left pretty quickly after graduation to pursue a career in journalism. He started out with a simple job as a substitute news reporter and broadcaster at Canadian news company, CBC TV.

Canadian-American game show host and television personality Alex Trebek had an estimated net worth of $70 million dollars at the time of his death, in 2020. Trebek was the host of the game show Jeopardy! for 37 seasons from 1984 until 2020.

After 5 years working there, Trebek decided that working as a newscaster was not really the journalistic dream which he had wanted to pursue. Instead, he found his way into game shows and hosting.

Although working for CBC had built up a positive reputation for Trebek, it was his first job on Canadian game show ‘Reach for the Top’, which really kick-started the presenter’s career.

This was a simple quiz show, which tested teams of high school students on their general knowledge. The show wasn’t the greatest success, but it was this job which really helped Trebek to earn a name for himself and boost his presenting reputation. After Reach for the Top, Alex Trebek went on to host the nationally recognized game show ‘Jackpot’, and worked as question master for three years, before he made his bold change of location, to the city which could make him an internationally recognized figure – Hollywood.

The first big show he presented was ‘The Wizard of Odds’, which at the time was not a massive success, and only lasted for one season. Instead, the show was replaced with ‘High Rollers’, a program that was run by the same crew as The Wizard of Odds, but was a much bigger success and ran for 14 years. His next jobs were split between ‘The $128,000 question’ and ‘Pitfall’, which both ran for two years each.

By this point, Trebek had become a nationally recognized presenter in both Canada and the US.

It was his success in these other shows that brought Alex Trebek to his most famous show, ‘Jeopardy!’. The game was created in 1984, by the producers of ‘Wheel of Fortune’. After just one season, Jeopardy! was a massive success, and became the pinnacle of Trebek’s career. Since then, he has gone on to host multiple other game shows and has performed several guest-star roles in other areas of television. However, all that said, that first newscaster role at CBC TV was what really changed the dynamic of Trebek’s career.

The well-known ‘Jeopardy!’ star earned his fame from the popular TV Show, but he started making big money much before that. Whilst his first few television roles were mainly to get his face seen and also to earn enough money for rent, Alex Trebek’s net worth started considerably rising when he started hosting The Wizard of Odds. Even though this show didn’t even get a second season, Trebek’s pay massively increased when he joined this show, as it was nationally recognized Canadian TV.

The next few shows he presented obviously brought him money, but it was his time on Jeopardy! which not only made him known to the world, but also put his net worth, and annual pay, up into the millions.

Mainly, Trebek’s fame and success has sprouted from his charming and calm on-screen personality. Right from his first news reporter job, he has kept a cool demeanor which has made him stand out to audiences across the globe.

Trebek’s Total Net Worth

Alex Trebek earned estimated total career income of $140 million dollars. His salary by the end of his life was $18 million dollars per year. As Trebek lived in the state of California, he will have had to pay around 49% in taxes on his career income. After tax, it is estimated that his career earnings were around $71.4 million dollars, having paid $68.6 million dollars in taxes.

Alex Trebek married Elaine Callei Trebek in 1974 and they later divorced seven years later, in 1981. As this was early in his career and they had no children together, it is estimated that Alex paid less than $1.5 million in spousal support. He later married Jean Currivan Trebek in 1990 and they had three children together, Matthew, Emily and Nicky Trebek.

In his personal life he likely spent $18-25 million dollars of his career earnings, including his donations like the $5 million that he donated to the University of Ottawa to fund the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue. As well as an additional $7.5 million to his alma mater school. He likely also earned around $25 million dollars from his investments and will have had to pay around $2-3 million dollars in business costs, associated to his career. Therefore, it is estimated that Alex Trebek had a net worth of around $70 million dollars.

Summing-Up

Overall, Alex Trebek was an internationally renowned television presenter. His work started out small, but after many different jobs working with multiple TV shows, he found success and made a name for himself, mainly through the popular game show ‘Jeopardy!’. His success was not only found in his cool demeanor, but also from heart-warming advice that his dad had given him.

His fame him beyond being only a TV host and led to guest-starring roles in shows like ‘How I Met Your Mother’, and comedic parodies in ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Family Guy’, and ‘Saturday Night Live’! At the time of Alex Trebek’s death in 2020, Alex Trebek had a net worth estimated to be $70 million dollars. He was 80 years old.

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