Jeopardy!: LeVar Burton Reacts to Guest Hosting News

It's finally happening! After a viral petition was launched to get LeVar Burton in as one of the [...]

By Jamie Jirak

It's finally happening! After a viral petition was launched to get LeVar Burton in as one of the upcoming guest hosts of Jeopardy!, the show has officially announced that the star known for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow will be one of the many people to try out the hosting job, which was held by Alex Trebek for 37 years before his passing in November. The petition to get Burton on the line-up has been a hot topic on social media, and the actor made it clear that he wanted to give it a go. Since the news broke that Burton would be joining Jeopardy! as a guest host, he has taken to social media to celebrate the news.

"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 you in me. YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE! Go ahead and take my word for it, this time," Burton wrote. "Special shout-out to Joshua Sanders who started the petition," he added. You can view his tweets below:

"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 role 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," the petition's description reads. "This petition is to show Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and producers Mike Richards and Harry Friedman just how much love the public has for Burton, and how much we'd all love to see him as the next host of Jeopardy!"

There has already been a slew of interim hosts, including "Greatest of All Time" winner Ken Jennings, series executive producer Mike Richards, TV presenter Katie Couric, and Dr. Oz. Others will appear as the game show's host in the coming months, including 60 Minutes host Bill Whitaker, The Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik, and presenters Anderson Cooper, Savannah Guthrie, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Are you excited to see LeVar Burton host Jeopardy!? Tell us in the comments!

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