REGIS PHILBIN

It's cool to be smart again: the game show “Jeopardy!”.

The world also said goodbye to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who died in July. Other former political figures who died this year include Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, New York Mayor David Dinkins, Arizona Gov. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2020 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___David Stern, 77. The guitarist who supplied the scratching, seething sound that fueled the highly influential British punk band Gang of Four. He fused African rhythms with funk to become one of the most influential musicians in world dance music.

During the hour before the funeral's start, Fox averaged 1.67 million viewers, the Nielsen company said. In the same hour, MSNBC had 1.28 million viewers and CNN had 1.25 million. During the 2 p.m. hour, Fox had 595,000 viewers, Nielsen said. NBC had 2.8 million viewers, ABC had 2.3 million, Fox had 1.6 million, Univision had 1.5 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and Telemundo had 910,000. Fox News Channel led the cable networks, averaging 3.07 million viewers in prime time.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. Television host Regis Philbin, who died last week at 88, has been buried at the University of Notre Dame following a private funeral service at his alma mater, a school spokesman said. The Philbin family wanted to bring Regis back to the place he loved so much for a private funeral and burial. That occurred on Wednesday, and he is now resting in peace at Notre Dame," school spokesman Dennis Brown said in an email. The genial television host and personality graduated from Notre Dame in 1953 and was an enthusiastic alum, often returning to the South Bend campus for football games, pep rallies, banquets, concerts and other events, the South Bend Tribune reported.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)WASHINGTON One by one, they passed through the grand Capitol Rotunda to pay respects to the civil rights icon. But missing was a man whose absence spoke volumes: President Donald Trump. No, I wont be going, Trump told reporters when asked whether he planned to pay his respects to Lewis, the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Rotunda. And I'm sure that John Lewis would be supportive of it.The White House did not respond to questions about why the president did not attend. Trump had previously expressed a reluctance to publicly mourn Lewis because he remained angry about the congressmans past criticisms.

“One of the greats in the history of television, Regis Philbin has passed on to even greater airwaves,” President Donald Trump said in a tweet. “You wait a lifetime for something like that and sometimes it never happens,” Philbin told the AP in 1999. Philbin got far more on-air experience in San Diego in the early 1960s, when KOGO-TV began producing “The Regis Philbin Show” for a national audience. “No arguments, no harsh words in all this time,” Philbin told a theater audience in 2000. Even though the series “Regis Philbin’s Health Styles,” on Lifetime in the 1980s, was part of his lengthy resume, Philbin had health issues.

FILE - This Jan. 12, 2012 file photo shows Hugh Downs at the "Today" show 60th anniversary celebration in New York. Downs, a genial and near-constant presence on television from the 1950s through the 1990s, has died. His family said Downs died of natural causes Wednesday, July 1, 2020, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)NEW YORK Hugh Downs, a genial and near-constant presence on television on news, game and talk shows, has died at age 99. He hosted the PBS series Over Easy and Live from Lincoln Center and did the game show Concentration.