Star Trek’s LeVar Burton might be in the running to replace Alex Trebek on Jeopardy

When Canadian icon Alex Trebek tragically passed away last week, November 8^th, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Jeopardy was tasked with breaking the news on social media. Since then, there has been a lot of Twitter chatter about the long running trivia game show; namely, will Jeopardy cast a new host? Who could possibly fill Trebek’s shoes?Sure, famed Jeopardy contestant (and chronic smart alek) Ken Jennings seems like a good fit, but if you will indulge us for a moment, might we suggest a very suitable alternative? Someone who has dedicated their career to teaching and learning. History. Reading. Outer space. That’s right: we submit to you that famed Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roots, and Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton should fill those shoes! And even Geordie LeVar himself thinks he might be a good fit. But you don’t have to take his word for it...Back in September, LeVar actually tweeted that he had been preparing his whole life for such a role, should it ever become available.

Not gonna lie, I feel like I’ve been preparing my whole life to occupy the @Jeopardy host podium when Alex retires. #Jeopardy https://t.co/N1HrMTCaYI

— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) September 22, 2020

Seems like his tweet has lit a fire under some of his fans. This past Thursday, taking to Twitter to appeal to his 2 million followers, LeVar shared a link to a petition started by a man named Joshua Sanders, appealing to Sony Pictures Entertainment to make LeVar the next host. The petition asked for 75,000, and at press time, it has over 58,500 signatories, meaning that this petition is sure to reach and surpass its goal rather soon!

Even if nothing comes from it, I can’t tell how much how I appreciate all y’alls love and support! ??♥️

Petition · Make LeVar Burton the next host of Jeopardy! · https://t.co/60lC1WCD61 https://t.co/QFxedpuWpU— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) November 12, 2020

Frankly, we can totally see LeVar absolutely killing this role. He spent years teaching children to love books and reading on Reading Rainbow, he conveyed the horror and brutality of slavery through his role as Kunta Kinte in the the Roots miniseries, and has spent over 30 years playing the sight-impaired engineer with a passion for space exploration on Star Trek: The Next Generation (and in the subsequent movies and spin-off shows). If anybody can do Jeopardy and Alex Trebek proud, it’s LeVar .Of course, ever the humble professional, he later tweeted that the focus right now should be on Trebek’s family. See, this is why LeVar is more gracious than the rest of us.

Of course while I’m very flattered by the petition, my thoughts are definitely with Alex Trebeck’s family and his millions of fans and the devastating loss of this irreplaceable legend. #LongLiveAlex

— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) November 12, 2020

Also, not for nothing, but just like Alex Trebek, LeVar has a very admirable moustache. We’ll take ‘Coincidence? I Don’t Think So!’ for $500, Alex.So far, Jeopardy has not announced any recasting plans nor any indication that the show will continue without Trebek once his final episodes air later this year. We can only wait and see. This is our final frontier.