Jerry Orbach Passes Away, 'Jeopardy' To Hold Super Tournament, ABC Holds Strong During Holidays

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Actor Jerry Orbach, who played a sardonic, seen-it-all cop on TV’s “Law & Order” and scored on Broadway as a song-and-dance man, has died of prostate cancer at 69, a representative of the show said Wednesday.

Orbach died Tuesday night in Manhattan after several weeks of treatment, Audrey Davis of the public relations agency Lippin Group said.

When his illness was diagnosed, he had begun production on NBC’s upcoming spinoff “Law & Order: Trial By Jury,” after 12 seasons playing Detective Lennie Briscoe in the original series. His return to the new show had been expected early next year.

On Broadway, the Bronx-born Orbach starred in hit musicals including “Carnival,” “Promises, Promises” (for which he won a Tony Award), “Chicago” and “42nd Street.”

Earlier, he was in the original cast of the off-off-Broadway hit “The Fantasticks,” playing the narrator. The show went on to run for more than 40 years.

Among his film appearances were roles in “Dirty Dancing,” “Prince of the City” and “Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Orbach is expected to appear in early episodes of “Law & Order: Trial by Jury,” for which he continued as Briscoe in a secondary role, when the series premieres later this season, Davis said.

“I’m immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th Century show business,” said Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the “Law & Order” series, in a statement. “He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable.”

In a 2000 Associated Press interview, Orbach said the role in the acclaimed “Law & Order” brought him “wonderful security” rare in the life of an actor.

“All my life, since I was 16, I’ve been wondering where that next job was gonna come from,” he explained. “Now I take the summer off, relax, and I know that at the end of July we’re gonna start another season.”

He said he didn’t know “where I stop and Lennie starts, really. … I know he’s tougher than me and he carries a gun. And I’m not an alcoholic.”

“I know I wouldn’t want to be him,” Orbach sums up. “I guess THAT’S where I stop and he starts.”

In 1987-88, he starred in the series “The Law and Harry McGraw,” a spinoff featuring a character he created in “Murder, She Wrote.” In 1990, a shot on “The Golden Girls” brought him an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a comedy series.

“There’s a pace in TV I like,” he said in a 1993 interview. “I like to work fast. I don’t like to dwell all day over one scene as you do in a big feature. Big feature films are another world.”

If winning more than $2.5 million wasn’t enough, “Jeopardy!” whiz Ken Jennings will have a shot at winning an additional $2 million — but the competition will be tougher this time around.

Producers of the game show announced Tuesday a “Super Tournament,” which will pit Jennings in a final match against two survivors of a competition between nearly 150 past five-time winners.

Host Alex Trebek called the tournament the “quest for Ken.”

“Ever since Ken started his amazing run, people have been speculating on how some of the past ‘Jeopardy!’ players would do against him,” Trebek said in a statement. “We’re answering that question.”

Jennings, too, was anxious about the challenge.

“I can’t wait to see who I’ll be up against in the finals,” he said.

Jennings earned $2,520,700 after a 74-game winning streak. He was beaten by California real estate agent Nancy Zerg.

The matches will begin airing in February or March, and the finals will air in May, said “Jeopardy!” publicist Jeff Ritter.

The third-place winner will receive $250,000 and the second-place winner, $500,000.

Strong showings from some of ABC’s signature shows, “Monday Night Football,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “According to Jim” and “Lost,” helped the network snap CBS’ six-week winning streak among adults 18-49 last week.

But CBS’ dominance in total viewers remained unchallenged with a repeat of departing veteran “Everybody Loves Raymond” drawing the largest audience on any network during the rerun-heavy Christmas week of Dec. 20.

ABC (9.7 million viewers, 3.4 rating/10 share among adults 18-49) logged the highest 18-49 average for any network during a week containing Christmas in four years, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

The network ranked No. 1 among adults 18-49 on five of the seven nights — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday — and boasted five of the top 10 shows among adults 18-49, including the top two: “MNF” (16.2 million, 6.4/18) and a rerun of the “Desperate Housewives” pilot (12.9 million, 5.2/14).

CBS (10.0 million, 3.0/9) led the pack in total viewers and was a competitive second in adults 18-49.

Meanwhile, NBC (7 million, 2.4/7) and Fox (5.8 million, 2.5/7) battled it out for third place with NBC ahead in total viewers and Fox prevailing in adults 18-49.

In a very impressive showing, coming off a soft lead-in, a vintage Christmas episode of “Raymond” (17 million, 5.1/13) ranked as the No. 1 program for the week in total viewers and No. 3 in adults 18-49.

NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” (10.7 million, 4.1/12) showed its ratings stamina Wednesday, winning the 10 p.m. hour with a rerun episode against all-original competition, including one of the final episodes of ABC’s veteran cop drama “NYPD Blue” (10.4 million, 3.5/10), which is set to bow out March 1.

On the other hand, NBC’s successful new reality series “The Biggest Loser” (9.7 million, 3.6/11) lost some of its momentum heading into the home stretch as it aired against CBS’ “The Amazing Race” (10.7 million, 4.0/12). The previous week, NBC’s weight-loss competition hit series highs in adults 18-49, averaging 11 million viewers and a 4.6/12 in a 90-minute broadcast.

Against competition of mostly repeats and overcoming a minuscule lead-in from “Rebel Billionaire” (2.8 million, 1.2/4), Fox’s new medical drama “House” (6.7 million, 2.9/8) posted its best delivery yet among adults 18-49.

Meanwhile, the second installment of the network’s “The Swan” (7.2 million, 3.3/9) had a quiet exit Monday with the two-hour finale finishing fourth in total viewers and third in adults 18-49 on a night dominated by repeats.

Still, the plastic surgery reality series’ numbers grew consistently throughout the night, peaking at 8.4 million, 3.8/9 at 9:30 p.m.

Credit: Nellie Andreeva/David Bauder/Frazier Moore/AP/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter/Yahoo

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.