Ken Jennings pays tribute to Alex Trebek: "The Cronkite of our generation"

"Jeopardy!", Super competitor Ken Jennings wrote Saturday a moving tribune to longtime host Alex Trebek, calling Walter Cronkite of his generation in a heartfelt editorial of The New York Times.

"Carson and Cronkite have long since disappeared, but Alex Trebek is still the last old school broadcaster to visit us every night by ritual," Jennings wrote. "He takes this seriously, he is the face of" Jeopardy! "The voice of facts in an afterlife … He knows how important he is to people."

"In person, it's definitely not the severe judicial presence that one would expect," continued Jennings. "When cameras stop shooting, Alex is a cowardly, even clumsy presence. He poses questions to studio viewers at each break, sometimes gliding in amusing accents or even bits of shoes. "

Read also: Alex Trebek diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer

Last week, Trebek, 78, stunned the world by announcing that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Trebek, who has been running the show for 35 years, said that He planned to continue working despite his illness and even joked about the fact that he had to overcome the obstacles because of the requirements of the contract.

"Normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I will fight against that," said the host. "I will continue to work and with the love and support of my family and friends, and with the help of your prayers, I plan to beat statistics on the low survival rate for this disease."

Jennings became a minor celebrity after winning 74 consecutive "Jeopardy!" Games in 2004. It remains by far the longest winning streak of any champions in the history of the series and the race has brought him over 3 million of earnings.