LeVar Burton will guest host Jeopardy! after nearly 250,000 fans signed a petition begging Sony Pictures Entertainment to bring on the Star Trek: The Next Generation actor as a potential replacement for the late Alex Trebek, who died in November at age 80. The appeals seem to have succeeded: Burton thanked fans in tweets Wednesday, writing, “I am overjoyed, excited, and eager to be guest-hosting Jeopardy!, and will do my utmost best to live up to your faith in me. YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE!” The Reading Rainbow host told The Daily Beast in an interview last week he had wanted to host the show very badly for a very long time: “If they were to hire somebody and I did not feel like I gave it my absolute best shot to get in there, I would never forgive myself. I am willing to put my skills up against those of anybody else who they are considering because I just believe so fervently that I’m right.” Burton won a 1995 celebrity Jeopardy! tournament after pestering Trebek with requests to come on the show for years.
