Katie Couric is the guest host of Jeopardy! and her stint behind the podium is reminding her of her late husband Jay Monahan. She talked to People about the new gig, how the production staff has made life easy on her, and how much Monahan loved the game show. He certainly wasn’t alone as millions tune in to the program every week. However, according to Couric, the 42-year-old was a rare talent. She believes he could have been a strong contender if given the opportunity. Back in 1998, Monahan died of colon cancer. He had been adamant about getting people screened for the disease. This two-week stint on the show supports Stand Up 2 Cancer, an organization that her husband founded, and they will be matching the winner’s earnings to donate to pancreatic cancer research. That disease took the life of Alex Trebek last year.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“I love watching the show, and used to watch it all the time with my late husband [Jay Monahan] who was really good at it,” she says. “I watch it now with my current husband [John Molner], but I think it has a special place in my heart because Jay loved it so much. I think he would’ve been a really good contestant.”
“It was so much fun,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “First of all, the team behind the scenes is amazing. I think they’re the unsung heroes of the whole operation. They work so hard, they are so smart and they were incredibly welcoming. I was a nervous wreck, honestly, before I came to the studio, but they put me at ease right away.”
In some other comments with the outlet, the television personality encouraged others to get tested.
“I think as COVID begins to lift, people really need to talk to their doctors about screening,” she says. “I think that, unfortunately, because so many people were not screened over the past year or so, for obvious reasons, that there will be, unfortunately, many more cancer [cases] and the mortality rate is likely to increase.”
“It’s just absolutely imperative that people talk to their doctors,” she continues. “There are at-home screening tests for colorectal cancer, for example. There are important screening tests for other cancers, whether we’re talking about breast cancer or prostate cancer. They just really need to be on top of that. Early detection is so critically important. If you’re 45 or over, you should be getting your first colon cancer screening.”
Did you catch her on Jeopardy? Let us know in the comments!
