LeVar Burton Fans Petition for Actor to Become New ‘Jeopardy!’ Host

LeVar Burton at the "Blunt Talk" Premiere, DGA Theater, Los Angeles, CA 08-10-15 — Photo by bossmoss/depositphotos.com 

It has been a little over a week since beloved Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek passed away, and fans are starting to think of who could potentially host the classic game show.

A petition on Change.org has been circulating over the last week to have actor and Reading Rainbow children’s television host LeVar Burton fill Trebek’s shoes.

“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 of Kunta Kinte in the ever important miniseries Roots, LeVar Burton has inspired and shaped the minds of several generations of trivia-loving nerds,” the petition states.

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It currently has close to 90,000 signatures toward its goal of 150,000.

Last week, Burton got wind of the petition and tweeted his response with a link to the website: “Even if nothing comes from it, I can’t tell how much how I appreciate all y’alls love and support!”

Most recently, Burton has been the host of his podcast, “LeVar Burton Reads.”

Trebek hosted Jeopardy! for 37 seasons, from 1984 until 2020. The Canadian game show host and television personality died at age 80 on Nov. 8, after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.