LeVar Burton Has Many New Prospects on the Horizon Including a New Game Show He Is Developing

LeVar Burton has been in our lives for decades, first teaching us a love of literature on Reading Rainbow, then having a long run as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation and many other Star Trek projects following.

Meanwhile, Jeopardy! ran for decades and thousands of episodes with the beloved Alex Trebek as host until he passed away in November of 2020. The nightly series was not ready to hang its hat up with Trebek’s passing, so new hosts were considered.

One of the contenders was none other than LeVar Burton, who fans really rallied behind, in hopes that he would land the job. While that didn’t work out, it turns out that he has a few other irons in the fire we can get excited about.

In a recent interview with Trevor Noah at The Daily Show (via /Film), Burton talked about the prospect of hosting a brand new game show, saying:

"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."

It actually turns out that Burton not getting the Jeopardy gig ended up opening a lot of doors for him. He's not being super specific about the opportunities he has in the works, but he seems to be excited about his prospects. He went on to say:

"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. 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, OK, 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."

LeVar Burton is beloved, and it’s cool to hear that he is working toward something else fans can support him in. What kind of project would you like to see Burton head up?