News Anchor Yanked Off Air After Making Sick Alex Trebek Joke

The world lost an icon just days ago, and one news anchor in Wisconsin has learned the hard way that it’s nothing to joke about.

At the ripe, old age of 80, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek lost his lengthy, public battle with cancer, sending the world into a kind of stupor.  This is 2020, after all, the year in which very few positive things happen, as though the global community is living through some sort of earthly purgatory.

Trebek was a beloved television entertainer who transcended the often-nerdy Jeopardy! with his wit and charisma, and depictions of the show gone awry during Saturday Night Live sketches only further cemented his legendary status.

Now, less than a month after his passing, a news anchor in Milwaukee used Trebek’s death as a way to make an ugly political point. 

Ted Perry, WITI’s head anchor for its 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. broadcasts, was suspended by the station for writing a Facebook post on his personal page in the aftermath of Trebek’s death from pancreatic cancer at age 80, the New York Post reported.

“2020 takes Alex Trebek but leaves Mitch McConnell?” Perry wrote in the since-deleted post, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. “Just end already.”

The 56-year-old anchor shut down both his personal Facebook and Twitter accounts in light of the controversial posting. His professional Facebook account is still active, but he has not posted anything since last Saturday.

The post led to pushback on both Facebook and Twitter, especially from conservatives who said the anchor’s statement showed his “bias,” while others called for his ouster from the network.

Perry had been with the station for 27 years at the time of the incident.

It has not been revealed if the angsty anchor will be receiving pay during his suspension.