After a successful campaign launch, it looks like LeVar Burton will host “Jeopardy!” after all.
Though not officially, the former “Reading Rainbow” host will close out season 37 of the quiz show as a guest host.
“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,” Mike Richards, executive producer of “Jeopardy!” stated. “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,” CNN reports.
Showing excitement and gratitude, Burton tweeted, “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,”
The other guest hosts are “Good Morning America” anchors George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts, journalist and “Celebrity Jeopardy!” champion David Faber and sportscaster Joe Buck.
As previously reported, Burton shared an online petition to name him as the official host of the game show, after Alex Trebec’s death. It read, “Between hosting 21 seasons of the educational Reading Rainbow, playing the brainiac engineer Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: the Next Generation, and filling the roll of Kunta Kinte in the ever important mini-series Roots, LeVar Burton has inspired and shaped the minds of several generations of trivia-loving nerds.”
According to CNN, the petition has received over 264,000 signatures.
As you know, host Alex Trebek passed away at the age of 80 following a long battle with cancer—and during that time the search for his replacement has taken over social media.
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