By not choosing Burton, the show deprived the world of a host that represents everything that it so sorely needs right now
Jeopardy! may have made the world’s worst hosting choice since OJ Simpson was given his own prank show in 2006. Even before the death of legendary host Alex Trebek, the public, including Trebek himself, was in deep debate over his potential heir. Following Trebek’s passing, the show moved through a number of other temporary guest hosts. Only three people of color were brought on as hosts, including the former Reading Rainbow host and Star Trek actor LeVar Burton, and in the end they decided to go with not one but two white hosts, one with questionable skill and both with questionable histories. The show not only failed by depriving itself of a wonderful host, but deprived the world of a host that represents everything that it so sorely needs right now.
Jeopardy! was born in the midst of a series of scandals that plagued quiz shows in the 1950s. Previous quiz shows were accused of being rigged, and many of these accusations had some truth to them. Jeopardy’s creator, Merv Griffin, added the Jeopardy! trademark of answers being asked as questions as a layer of complexity that made it clearer that the contestants were developing their own answers instead of being fed answers by producers. The show was cancelled twice before being reborn with a new host, Alex Trebek in 1983. The Canadian American host would go on to receive eight Emmys, seven while alive, and a posthumous one earlier this year.
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