Give the People What They Want: Make LeVar Burton the Next 'Jeopardy!' Host

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that social media campaigns don’t work. Following a months-long crusade to gather support for a viral petition now approaching a whopping quarter million signatures, LeVar Burton fans have carried the day: the Reading Rainbow luminary and television icon will step into Alex Trebek’s shoes for a guest stint behind the Jeopardy! lectern. A spokeswoman for Burton commented in an email that Burton credits the petition with securing the invitation from Jeopardy!.

“THANK YOU... to all y’all for your passionate support,” Burton tweeted. “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.”

Following the death of revered longtime host Alex Trebek in November, Jeopardy! has brought in a revolving door of prominent journalists, athletes, and actors as guest hosts, including Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers, Mehmet Oz, and Ken Jennings. Future guest hosts slated to close out season 37, in addition to Burton, will include Mayim Bialik, Savannah Guthrie, George Stephanopoulous, and Joe Buck. Executive producer Mike Richards said that Jeopardy! producers have been listening to their “passionate fans” as they select guest hosts, commenting, "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. 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."

Burton hasn’t exactly been coy about his desire to host Jeopardy!. As early as 2013, Burton tweeted that his dream job would be to host Jeopardy!; in 2020, prior to Trebek’s death, he tweeted, “Not gonna lie, I feel like I’ve been preparing my whole life to occupy the Jeopardy! podium when Alex Trebek retires.” Speaking to Newsweek last week, Burton underscored just how personally significant the program has been in his life, as well as the life of his family.

"I think I could continue his legacy,” Burton said. “I think I would do it proud. I think I would bring myself and my skills and my life experience. I believe that I will be honoring Alex's legacy by standing on the podium. I am a fan of Jeopardy! going back to fifth grade when Art Fleming was the host. So, I won't say, every night of my life, but most nights of my life from that time to now I have watched Jeopardy!. My daughter is 27, we've watched it every night of her life too."

Jeopardy! producers, let’s call this charade off. It’s time—no, past time—to give Burton the damn job already. Just take it from the petitioners, who have expounded at length about how Burton, the public intellectual who cultivated a love of reading and knowledge in an entire generation of Americans, is Trebek’s obvious successor. As Matt Malkin commented on the Change.org petition, “Burton probably taught Jeopardy! contestants how to read as children and would bring the same gentle gravitas as the incomparable Trebek.” Rashad Smith pointed out the significance of having a Black man behind the lectern, writing, “Burton has been most instrumental in helping tell the most critical stories that make up America… As this country deals with the portrayals and perceptions of Black people and their BIPOC and white allies, the culture and communities across the Globe deserve a daily reminder from a Black man in America who is a content and context expert.” Meanwhile, Aurelia Womack wrote, “For my entire life LeVar Burton has been a beacon of wisdom, literacy, and humanity. I can think of no better successor to the late Alex Trebek.”

Your move, Jeopardy!. Go ahead and take our word for it.

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