“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek hopes to resume taping his Emmy Award-winning quiz show Tuesday after escaping serious injury when he fell asleep at the wheel of his pickup truck on a rural road.
The 63-year-old television host was driving alone in the Central Coast town of Templeton on Friday afternoon when his truck drifted off the road, sideswiped a bank of mailboxes and sailed over an embankment into a ditch.
Trebek was not hospitalized and was not cited.
“I am very lucky and thankful that no one was badly hurt,” he said in a statement. “My back hurts a little, but I plan to be in the studio this Tuesday for our regular tapings.”
Trebek owns and manages a horse breeding and training farm about 8 miles southeast of Templeton. He was returning from a family lake home in Lake Nacimiento when the accident occurred.
The Canadian-born Trebek has been host of the popular quiz show “Jeopardy!” since 1984. He also hosts the annual National Geographic Bee.