LeVar Burton Joins National Spelling Bee

Scripps National Spelling Bee is bringing in LeVar Burton for this year’s edition of the contest. Event organizers informed Variety that the Reading Rainbow star would help liven things up. Over the course of the last decade, people have been tuning into the spelling bee more and more. However, now Scripps is betting on more content with the contestants behind the scenes to liven up their coverage. Basically, ION and Bounce TV will host the broadcasts of the event now. For years it was a staple on ESPN and Disney. (Scripps made a play for ION back in 2021, and is going to great lengths to attract viewership.) June 1 is the big day for the start of the event’s semifinals. People can tune in at 8 pm ET for the show and come back the next day for the finals. While Disney ended up caring about the event a lot, the cable-exclusivity ended up limiting it’s reach somewhat. 

For the Star Trek actor, this is yet another big profile media moment after his Jeopardy saga last year. He told Trevor Noah why he decided to walk away after the Internet pushed for him to be the host of the program.

“You know, we did a Kickstarter several years ago,” Burton said. “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.”

“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 mused. “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 continued, “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.”

Will you be watching the spelling bee this year? Let us know down in the comments!