While not enough time has passed for "Who should permanently replace Alex Trebek as Jeopardy!'s host?" to have become an age-old question, that inquiry has indeed been debated on scales large and small since even before Trebek's death in November 2020. (The icon's own jokey pick was for Betty White.) Now that the latest, and likely final, batch of upcoming guest hosts has been revealed, Jeopardy! fan Ryan Reynolds weighed in on who he thinks should take over for the long haul.
Luckily enough, Ryan Reynolds' presumably ideal Jeopardy! host is someone from the newly announced group: Star Wars: The Next Generation vet LeVar Burton. Check out how Reynolds made his voice heard on the matter, even if he didn't phrase his support in the form of a question.
LeVar Burton, who is just as much known for his Reading Rainbow efforts as his Star Trek legacy, arguably inspired the most well-received reactions to any of the guest hosts, considering his name had been at the top of many fans' lists as a perfect candidate for the high-profile hosting gig. Once he showed his own support for the fan-fueled efforts, it was apparently only a matter of time before the powers that be at Jeopardy! decided to go forward with the idea. I like to think there was a "new" exec in the office that day that looked suspiciously like Ryan Reynolds, only with a big bushy mustache and large-framed glasses.
Not that Ryan Reynolds alone will be enough to convince the game show's decision-makers that LeVar Burton is an ideal choice to take over Jeopardy! going forward. One major element - one might even say the most important element - is that Burton isn't a full-blown disaster as a Jeopardy! host. No one expects that to be the case, to be sure, but how crushing would it be if he just froze up and made honking noises as soon as the camera's started rolling?
Starting with Jeopardy! mastermind Ken Jennings, the game show has already given viewers a growing variety of temporary hosts, from the surprisingly aces NFL superstar Aaron Rodgers to the unsurprisingly polarizing Dr. Oz. And with The Big Bang Theory vet Mayim Bialik coming to the podium soon, LeVar Burton has his work cut out for him when it comes to competition.
While Ryan Reynolds' Jeopardy! fandom obviously isn't exclusive to him, with million around the U.S. tuning into new episodes on a daily basis, he is rather unique for his connections to Jeopardy! ahead of Alex Trebek's death. For one, Reynolds actually appeared on the show to deliver a video clue tied to his yet-to-premiere feature Free Guy. As well, the actor revealed later that Trebek actually has a cameo appearance in Free Guy, which is currently slotted for an August 13 debut.
So while Ryan Reynolds obviously isn't the Grand Decider of all things Jeopardy!, which actually utilized executive producer Mike Richards when scheduling issues came up, here's hoping all the attention surrounding LeVar Burton's upcoming hosting stint will be enough to win everyone over .
