LeVar Burton is Glad He Didn’t Get The ‘Jeopardy!’ Gig

“We’re trying to figure out what the right game show for LeVar Burton would be.”

After a hard-fought campaign to succeed the late Alex Trebek as the next host of Jeopardy!, LeVar Burton is not taking the L with any bitterness. In fact, the actor and activist seems pretty glad to have been passed on for the gig.

According to a recent interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, Burton thanked fans for their support throughout his career, but particularly in the last five or six years, with the call for a return of his Emmy-winning children’s program, Reading Rainbow (which is getting a documentary treatment in the coming months.) “I discovered then that the generation of adults now who grew up on Reading Rainbow, they were down with whatever it is I wanted to do,” Burton tells The Daily Show host. “And the same was true with this Jeopardy! thing,” Burton added.

But even though the hopes of fans had aligned with his own, Burton quickly realized the iconic game show might not have been the fit it initially presented itself as. “What I found out is that it wasn’t the thing that I wanted after all,” Burton admitted before noting there were opportunities presented he “couldn’t have dreamt” after his Jeopardy audition. Without going into much detail, Burton hints at a synthesis of his various on-screen personas in the works with the development of a book-themed gameshow. “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.”

Watch LeVar Burton discuss his Jeopardy! run on The Daily Show below. Watch the full episode via Comedy Central.