LeVar Burton: 'Jeopardy!' host gig began 'scary,' ended fun
LOS ANGELES -- LeVar Burton’s quest to become the new host of “Jeopardy!” has been a confident, upbeat effort by the actor and those who rooted him on with a petition drive.
But when the day came to tape the first of his week's share of episodes as one of a succession of guest hosts, the show's pace and the challenge of following in Alex Trebek's much-admired footsteps threw Burton off stride.
It made for a rough start to the five back-to-back tapings that begin airing Monday, said the veteran actor known for “Roots," “Star Trek: The Next Generation" and ”Reading Rainbow." He turned for advice to wife Stephanie Cozart Burton, who as his makeup artist was on hand to play coach during a production break.
“Being at home, it feels like a really relaxed half-hour, but it's not relaxed at all,” he said. “You can't let your focus drop for a nanosecond.”
Burton has been watching and assessing the other guest hosts — in other words, his competition for the position that the Canadian-born Trebek held from 1984 to shortly before his November 2020 death from cancer at age 80. Art Fleming was the quiz's show's original and only other host, in the 1960s and '70s.
