'Jeopardy!' Announces Final Round Of Guest Hosts, Including LeVar Burton
CULVER CITY, Calif. (CBS) -- "Jeopardy!" has announced its final round of celebrity guest hosts who will be filling in this season in the wake of Alex Trebek's death. Among the famous names is "Reading Rainbow's" LeVar Burton, who openly campaigned for the job and was the subject of an internet petition from fans who wanted him to get it.
In addition to Burton, the newly revealed guest hosts are "Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, CNBC's David Farber and sports broadcaster Joe Buck.
As of Wednesday, more than 246,000 people have signed the Change.org petition to "Make LeVar Burton the next host of Jeopardy!"
"THANK YOU... to all y'all for your passionate support!" Burton tweeted. "I am overjoyed, excited, and eager to be guest-hosting Jeopardy!, and will do my utmost best to live up to your faith you in me. YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE! Go ahead and take my word for it, this time."
Burton is best known as the longtime host of the PBS children's series "Reading Rainbow," and for his roles as Geordi La Forge on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Kunta Kinte in the "Roots" miniseries.
"60 Minutes" correspondent and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is currently guest hosting "Jeopardy!" He'll be followed by celebrities Bill Whitaker, Buzzy Cohen, Mayim Bialik, Savannah Guthrie and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
A donation will be made to a charity of each guest host's choice, equal to the cumulative winnings of the contestants that compete while they're hosting.
"Jeopardy!" airs weeknights at 7:30 p.m. on WBZ-TV.
