LeVar Burton Will Guest Host Jeopardy! After Massive Fan Campaign

Marisa SarnoffApr 21st, 2021, 4:40 pm
 

(Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

Actor, podcaster, and beloved television personality LeVar Burton is among the final batch of guest co-hosts for the current season of Jeopardy!, the long-running show announced Wednesday, following a months-long fan campaign to get Burton the job.

“We can finally tell you! Here is the final group of guest hosts to close out Season 37,” the official Twitter account of the show said.

Other upcoming guest hosts include Good Morning America anchors Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, CNBC anchor David Faber, and sportscaster Joe Buck.

Burton tweeted a message of thanks and enthusiasm to his fans and supporters.

“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 [sic] me,” Burton, himself a winner of Celebrity Jeopardy!, said. “YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE! Go ahead and take my word for it, this time.”

To Burton’s fans, news of his guest-host role has been a long time coming. Burton himself hasn’t been shy about saying that he’s the best one for the job – “I think my whole career is an advertisement for being the host of Jeopardy!,” he told Entertainment Weekly earlier this month – and one fan launched a Change.org petition  in Novebmer 2020 to make Burton the next host of Jeopardy! The petition has nearly 250,000 signatures.

Known as an actor for his roles in Roots and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Burton was also the host of the early-literacy show Reading Rainbow. He also hosts a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, in which he narrates a variety of short fiction stories.

Longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek announced in March 2019 that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He passed away in early November 2020.

Since Trebek’s final episode aired in January, a rotating roster of guest hosts have been at the podium, including Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and Dr. Oz, whose stint was met with skepticism and derision.

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