Fan petition takes off for Star Trek and Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton to become the next host of Jeopardy!
"LeVar Burton" by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
APRIL 7, 2021 - Hands up who thinks LeVar Burton should be the next host of Jeopardy! If you raised your hand, then you are very much not alone. Nearly 200,000 people have signed a change.org petition in support of the move.
Jeopardy! is a long-running American game show that was hosted by the late Alex Trebek until his death in November of last year. Trebek’s last episode of the show aired in January, and since then, the show has made use of a list of guest hosts to fill his spot while they search for a new, permanent host. The list of guest hosts includes news anchor Katie Couric, Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, medical correspondent for 60 Minutes, among others.
Now, some fans are pushing for Jeopardy! producers Sony Pictures Television to consider LeVar Burton for the permanent role. Joshua Sanders started a change.org petition 5 months ago, in November of 2020. It got off to a great start, gaining 11,000 signatures in just three days, but then it went quiet. But then, earlier this week - coincidentally on First Contact Day - Burton himself shared a link to the petition on Twitter, and it started taking off. As of today, it’s got nearly 200,000 signatures, and climbing.
Leaving this here in the event the powers that be are listening... https://t.co/xB3x8atDCv
— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) April 6, 2021
Since Burton tweeted the petition link, it’s been picked up by the New York Post, shared by Dick Van Dyke and even Stephen Colbert made a joke out of it.
I think LeVar Burton should host Jeopardy! As Geordi La Forge. And the buzzers should be phasers. And Data should be the judge. And it should be in space. And just be Star Trek.
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) April 7, 2021
Could the dream become a reality? Well, Sanders sure thinks Burton’s qualified. In the petition, he notes that “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 [sic] 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. [...] we'd all love to see him as the next host of Jeopardy!”
If you’d like to add your name to the list of supporters, just head to change.org and search for LeVar Burton Jeopardy!
