LeVar Burton just gave his reasons for not wanting the Jeopardy! hosting job. Trevor Noah managed to snag the Reading Rainbow star for an appearance on The Daily Show. During their conversation, Burton reacted to all of the drama surrounding the Jeopardy! hosting gig. Both the show and the network had to scramble to find a new host after producer Mike Richards’ decision triggered blowback on social media. If that weren’t enough, reporting from numerous outlets showed that there had been some misconduct in his past. Sony Pictures Television had to make the call to select both Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings as replacement hosts. Fans across social media still were holding out hope that Burton could get in there somehow. He’s been gracious over the course of this entire process. Obviously, he was a lot of the Internet’s choice for a new host. The Star Trek actor isn’t really disappointed and is looking forward to other opportunities. Check out what he had to say right here.
“You know, we did a Kickstarter several years ago,” Burton began. “I discovered then that the generation of adults now, who grew up on Reading Rainbow, they were down with whatever it is I wanted to do, and the same was true with this Jeopardy! thing. I made it public that I wanted it for myself, that it made sense to me, and they were all about it. It made as much sense to them as it did to me. And, so, they wanted it for me as much as I wanted it.”
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“The crazy thing is that when you set your sights on something, you know, they say be careful of what you wish for, because what I found out is that it wasn’t the thing that I wanted after all,” Burton continued. “What I wanted was to compete. I mean, I wanted the job, right, but then, when I didn’t get it, it was, like, well, okay, what’s next? And, so, the opportunities that have come my way as a result of not getting that gig, I couldn’t have dreamt it up. If you had given me a pen and paper and said, well, so what do you want this to really look like? If it doesn’t include Jeopardy! I wouldn’t have been this generous to myself.”
The star added, “I never thought about hosting any other game show outside of Jeopardy! But now, they went in a different direction with their show, which is their right, and now I’m thinking, well, it does kind of make sense, let me see what I can do. So we’re trying to figure out what the right game show for LeVar Burton would be.”
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