With the sad passing of Alex Trebek, Jeopardy! is on the market for a new host. There’s been a decidedly, uh, mixed response to the initial round of interim celeb stand-ins, but surely the suits are on the hunt for a full-time host. And the internet thinks they’ve found one in Levar Burton.
Yes, Levar Burton — the guy who made millions of child millennials wonder how the Reading Rainbow host found time to pal around with the rest of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew — says he’s willing to throw his hat in the ring. And honestly, we’re behind it. Burton has spent most of his life oozing the sort of reliably good guy energy that would make anyone want to tune in. In fact, he posted an online petition that has — as of this writing — garnered almost 200,000 signatures.
In addition to his time on Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Burton also played Kunta Kinte in the landmark 1977 miniseries Roots. It’s not many working actors who have three iconic roles on their resume, but Burton does and Jeopardy! would be a decent fourth. And if the Jeopardy! powers are looking to attract a new generation to the show, it’s hard to imagine a better fit than Burton, who’s extremely well-known to the demographic who are quickly becoming the kind of media consumers who will watch game shows.
This checks all the boxes. Levar Burton is the answer. Or, if our response must be in the form of a question, than we’ll just say “how soon until Jeopardy!‘s producers get their act together?”