It’s finally happening! After a social media campaign to get LeVar Burton into a hosting gig on Jeopardy!, the show announced on April 21, he would be a guest host beginning in July. Burton has multi-generational fans thanks to hosting and executive producing PSB’ Reading Rainbow from 1983 to 2006, starring as Kunta Kinte in Roots, and Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” He has 13 Emmys, a George Foster Peabody and a Grammy. After the show’s longtime and beloved host Alex Trebek passed away from pancreatic cancer last November, fans began to champion Burton for the role, with a Change.org petition garnering over 246,000 signatures.
THANK YOU… to all y’all for your passionate support! I am overjoyed, excited, and eager to be guest-hosting Jeopardy!, and will do my utmost best to live up to your faith you in me. YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE! Go ahead and take my word for it, this time. https://t.co/C7mZWMok2X
— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) April 21, 2021
When Jeopardy! Tweeted its guest host lineup, Burton quoted it, writing “THANK YOU… to all y’all for your passionate support! I am overjoyed, excited, and eager to be guest-hosting Jeopardy!, and will do my utmost best to live up to your faith in me. You made A DIFFERENCE! Go ahead and take my word for it, this time.” He also thanked Joshua Sanders who started the petition. Burton will host the show July 26, 2021 – July 30, 2021, joining Good Morning America and This Week With George Stephanopoulos anchor George Stephanopoulos, his fellow GMA anchor Robin Roberts, CNBC Squawk on the Street co-anchor and former Celebrity Jeopardy! champ David Faber, and three-time National Sportscaster of the Year award winner, sportscaster Joe Buck.
“Our goal has been to present a wide variety of guest hosts with different skill sets and backgrounds on our path to finding a permanent host,” “Jeopardy!” executive producer Mike Richards told Variety. “Our passionate fans are telling us what they like, and we are listening. All of the guest hosts have brought individualism, energy, and an authentic love of our show to each of their episodes. We look forward to sharing the rest of the season with our viewers.”
