The Chase star Brad Rutter reveals how late Jeopardy host Alex Trebek inspired his performance

ABC debuts its new trivia quiz show The Chase on Thursday night, with one of its iconic ‘chasers,’ Jeopardy champ Brad Rutter, revealing how the late Alex Trebek inspired his performance.

Rutter, 42, is one of three ‘chasers’ on the show, along with Ken Jennings and Brad Holzhauer, who square off against three contestants each week.

Rutter opened up in a new interview with The Wrap ahead of the Thursday premiere, where he spoke about how Trebek’s legacy helped him carry himself on the air.

‘He held himself and the show to a really high standard. He was just pursuing excellence all the time,’ Rutter said.

‘And having been in TV, knowing how tough a job that is, that’s always the thing that I was most impressed with,” Rutter continued.

He added, ‘That’s a hard job and he just nailed every time … [And] he was always having a good time. Even as serious as he was, there was always a little twinkle in his eye.’

‘So you know, if you can take those three things — really care about something, pursue excellence, and have a good time doing it, I can’t think of a better way to try to live life,’ he continued.

Rutter has a unique history with The Chase, which originated as a hit British series that has aired for several years.

There was an American version that briefly aired on the Game Show Network in 2013, with Rutter revealing he had been featured in an earlier version of that pilot, which Fox ordered in 2012.

‘Yeah, that is correct, so I was quite familiar with the format. Obviously, the show’s been a big hit in England for a long time, so Fox ordered a pilot back in 2012,’ Rutter said.

‘We ended up flying over to London and actually shooting it on their set over there. But pretty much the week after we did that there was a complete regime change at Fox, and they ended up not picking it up,’ he added.

‘And then GSN decided to do it, but with just The Beast [Mark Labbett, star of the U.K. version],’ Rutter said.

He added that he would never want to let Trebek down, and he ‘inspired me a lot,’ especially with him battling cancer.

‘Sometimes that’s what it takes to really get you realize what you take from people. The thing that stuck out to me just being around him on the “Jeopardy!” set was how he cared so much about the show,’ he added.

‘You know, putting on a good show was really important to him, and that came through in everything he did. He held himself and the show to a really high standard. He was just pursuing excellence all the time,’ he said.