Viral Jeopardy! Contestant's Newest Tribute to Alex Trebek Will Make You Cry Again

Earlier this week, Brown University student Dhruv Gaur he revealed his written answer for "Final Jeopardy!" to be, "We ♥ you Alex!" Alex Trebek was moved to tears.

By Corinne Heller Nov 14, 2019 4:25 PMTags
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For Brown University student Dhruv Gaur, showing public support for Alex Trebek on Jeopardy! in his time of need was a no-brainer.

Earlier this week, the 20-year-old returning contestant appeared on the game show and during the "Final Jeopardy!" round, he revealed his written answer to be, "What is We ♥ you Alex!" Trebek, 79, who revealed in March he is battling stage four pancreatic cancer, answered, "That's very kind, thank you," while choking up. The heartwarming moment went viral.

The episode was filmed in September, soon after Trebek announced that he had lost about 12 pounds in a week and had had abnormal lab test results that spurred doctors to order more chemotherapy for him.

"He had come back, actually, to the green room and talked to all the contestants who were on the tournament and we could really tell it was tough for him," Gaur said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday. "So, when I got up there, obviously I wasn't gonna win the game or anything, so I was like, I could try to figure out the right answer, or I could do something for this person who might need it right now."

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"I was at the watch party for this episode with my friends and my mom texted me," he said. "She was like, 'You're trending on Twitter!' And I was like, 'OK, mom, eight tweets isn't 'trending.' And she was like, 'No, really, check.' And '#weloveyoualex' was like in the top 10 trending hashtags on Twitter. And since then, it's been crazy. Like, I'm here. Also Ryan ReynoldsChrissy Teigen all tweeted this moment and there's just been a lot of energy around this."

Gaur said he and some of the other Jeopardy! contestants plan to watch the Tournament of Champions finals together and play along and for every question they answer correctly, they plan to donate $1 to the Lustgarten Foundation to support pancreatic cancer research‎.