NBC Nightly News made the editorial decision this week to cut “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek’s thanks for prayers in his fight against stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Mr. Trebek recently told People magazine that his tumors have shrunk by more than 50% in what appears to be connected to “a couple million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed towards me and their prayers.”

The media watchdog NewsBusters compared coverage across ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC and found that only ABC mentioned Mr. Trebek’s gratitude for prayer.

NBC correspondent Joe Fryer’s script acknowledged “good thoughts” while CBS fill-in anchor and “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan quoted the 78-year-old on the “mind-boggling” near-remission.

“It’s disturbing that NBC News would go to such lengths to avoid saying prayer help someone through a tough time in their life,” NewsBusters Nicholas Fondacaro wrote Wednesday.

“The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory,” Mr. Trebek told People for the interview published Wednesday.