Wilmette native competes on Trebek’s final ‘Jeopardy!’ episode, which airs today

A Wilmette native put his knowledge to the test on host Alex Trebek’s final episode of “Jeopardy!”, which airs at 3:30 p.m. today, Friday, Jan. 8, on ABC.

According to the “Jeopardy!” website, Cliff Chang, a software engineer originally from Wilmette, will face off against returning champion Yoshie Hill, an executive assistant from California, and Jim Gilligan, an assistant professor of English education originally from New York. 

This episode is the last of which Trebek hosted before his death on Nov. 8, 2020. He died at 80 years old after a nearly two-year battle with pancreatic cancer, according to a “Jeopardy!” press release. 

The Record North Shore reached out to Chang for a comment before the episode but did not hear back as of press time.

On Nov. 8, the day Trebek died, Chang shared a tweet on his public Twitter page that read: “Alex Trebek did more to normalize, ‘Hey, knowing random stuff is pretty cool!’ than anybody else in America during my lifetime.”

Trebek taped his last week of “Jeopardy!” shows, including this episode, on Oct. 29, according to the show’s website.

“When he finished taping this last week of shows, no one knew they would be his last,” the website says. “He performed his responsibilities without complaint, just as he’d always done — with humor, generosity and pride for the game he loved.”