Jeopardy has cycled through a series of guest hosts following the death of beloved longtime host Alex Trebek, ranging from Jeopardy legend Ken Jennings to NFL player Aaron Rodgers. Many fans have been calling for Star Trek and Reading Rainbow vet LeVar Burton to get a shot at hosting, with Burton himself on board with taking on hosting duties. Now, the dreams of Burton and his fans are coming true.
The final group of Season 37 guest hosts has been announced, and Levar Burton is among the names of the people who will be holding the Jeopardy host podium. The rest of this final batch of guest hosts is comprised of George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, David Faber and Joe Buck. Burton and the others will host for just one week to finish out Season 37, so Burton's long-awaited stint as host won't last for too long.
That doesn't mean that LeVar Burton is anything but excited about joining the Jeopardy hosting team, though! Shortly after the news broke that he was going to guest-host the game show, he took to Twitter with an enthusiastic and grateful message, posting:
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.
Although it's hard to say whether or not LeVar Burton would have had the chance to guest-host Jeopardy even without the fan calls for him to take the podium, he's definitely not kidding with his reference to the "passionate support" online. The push for Burton to follow in Alex Trebek's game show footsteps began in November 2020, not too long after Trebek passed away.
The initial petition cited Levar Burton's 21 seasons as host of the educational Reading Rainbow series, his longtime role as Geordi on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and his performance of Kunta Kinte on Roots as some of the reasons that he deserved the job. The push for Burton to become host only heated up from there.
LeVar Burton himself reacted to the fan campaign shortly after, posting on Twitter how much he appreciated the "love and support" even if "nothing comes of it," along with a link to the petition. As the calls for Burton increased in recent weeks as other guest hosts came and went (with Anderson Cooper currently at the podium, with an adorable picture of his son observing to boot), even The Late Show host Stephen Colbert chimed in with a Star Trek-themed suggestion.
As for when LeVar Burton will debut as Jeopardy guest host, no dates for his week have been announced at this point, but there can be no doubt that short of Burton somehow doing a terrible job despite all of his other TV experience, there will be calls for him to take the top job on a permanent basis. That would be bad news for Aaron Rodgers, but wonderful for Burton fans!
Like the other guest hosts, a donation will be made to a charity of LeVar Burton's choice equal to the cumulative winnings of the competitors during his week, so no matter what happens, something great will come of his long-awaited run as host.
