Ex-Cal Star Aaron Rodgers Studied Hard to Guest Host 'Jeopardy!'

Hours of film work on past shows reportedly helped Packers QB get ready for his role

NFL quarterbacks are famous for the hours of film work they do to prepare for an upcoming opponent.

Well, former Cal star and 2020 NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers reportedly took that habit and applied it to his appearance as guest host of “Jeopardy!”

Rodgers’ two-week stint as “Jeopardy!” guest host will be televised from Monday, April 5, until Friday, April 16 (7 p.m. Pacific time on ABC in the San Francisco Bay Area). But the taping of those shows was done in a two-day period in February.

But what was interesting was the time Rodgers spent getting ready for his TV hosting, as reported in a story by ESPN’s Rob Demovsky.

Rodgers has been a passionate, devoted fan of “Jeopardy!” and late host Alex Trebek for years, and he wanted to make sure he did it right. This is what Rodgers told Demovsky about his preparation:

“I watched hours and hours and hours of episodes. Luckily Netflix has a few seasons, and I went back to DVR. But I had to watch from a different perspective -- from Alex's perspective. I couldn't watch it as a fan anymore.

"I took pages and pages and pages of notes. I wrote down every affirmative that he said to any type of clue. I wrote down how he would respond if they didn't get it right. I wrote down beat points of the show. I wrote down all the different ways he would take it to break. I wrote down the stuff that he said coming out of break. Literally, I studied for this like no other. I wanted to absolutely just crush it."

Rodgers might not do that much studying if he were facing the Kansas City Chief in the Super Bowl.

Rodgers noted that there was an interesting moment at the end of his first show (presumably the Monday program) regarding the Final Jeopardy! response of the returning champion:

"Just wait until you see the first show and what the returning champion wrote, and then think about me standing at the podium watching -- and this will make sense when you see what he wrote -- and I'm watching him write this down. For about 25 seconds, I'm watching him write this, and he thinks about the answer and says 'F--- it,' basically, 'I'm going to write this answer,' which, probably one of the viral moments of my two weeks will be his response, which is taking a shot at something that happened to us late in the season.”

Tough choice for Monday TV viewing. NCAA championship game starts at 6 p.m. Pacific time, and Rodgers' first show starts at 7 p.m. Pacific time on Monday. 

Decision, decisions.

He's a 3-time NFL MVP, a Celebrity Jeopardy! Champ, and on Monday he takes over the Jeopardy! lectern! Tune in April 5 as Aaron Rodgers takes center stage. pic.twitter.com/5GPup20OSl

— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) April 3, 2021

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Cover photo of Aaron Rodgers by Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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