For decades, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek was a famously mustachioed man, but he traded in the facial hair for a consistently clean-shaven look in the early 2000s. A new millennium, a new man! But after 35 seasons of hosting the quiz show, he’s gone and thrown us for a loop again. In last night’s season premiere, Trebek’s full silver beard made its TV debut, and let us be unequivocal in our praise: That beard has been taking notes, observing the competition, and it knows how to find its light and hit its marks. Now let’s take a moment to explore how we got to this moment in scruffy television history.
The official Jeopardy! Instagram had already teased the beard a few days ago.
Then they let the beard show off its whimsical side the day before the season 35 premiere.
And now the show wants to hear from you, the people, about whether or not the beard should stick around.
Even though it’s a new beard on the block, it is attached to one of TV’s most venerable icons, so hopefully it sticks around long enough to compete with the late-night beards of Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. They could use a senior statesman like Trebek’s beard to look up to.