LeVar Burton says Jeopardy snub taught him "the perfect nature of all things"
Although he admits he was "disappointed" to lose out on Jeopardy, Levar Burton tells The A.V. Club the feeling only lasted until the phone started to ring

Back in 2021, the idea that LeVar Burton might follow in the late Alex Trebek’s giant footsteps as Jeopardy host was much more than a whisper. A dedicated fan campaign championed Burton as the perfect choice for the slot, and he even tried his hand at guest hosting for a brief stint. Even Burton admits it felt like everything was falling into place—until he ultimately lost out on the gig. Despite his disappointment, Burton now looks back at the snub as a sort of subliminal message, and an experience that taught him “the perfect nature of all things.”
“It really cemented to me that everything happens to me for a reason, right?” Burton tells The A.V. Club’s own Drew Gillis in a new interview. “Because I thought that I had a really good shot at getting the job. What I didn’t know at the time was that it really wasn’t an audition.”
Burton has shared a similar sentiment before, although he’s diplomatic enough not to name Mike Richards, the executive producer instrumental in the hosting search who was ultimately, if briefly, selected at the end of a long trial period. (Richards ultimately lost the job as well; three weeks after he was announced as the new host, Sony doubled back hard, stating that Richards would leave the show altogether amid “disruption and internal difficulties.” Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik took over as co-hosts in September 2021.)
“The executive producer, the man who was hired to teach me how to play the game, who said he didn’t want the job but his job was to help them find the right person for the job, that person gave themselves the job,” Burton recalls. “I was disappointed, I’m not gonna lie. I had to really sit down and try to figure out: so what, what happened here? What went wrong?”