After forcefully separating his name from Jeopardy!, following what turned out to be a pretty shady “try out” period to replace Alex Trebek, LeVar Burton is getting his own game show.
The beloved Reading Rainbow Emmy winner and Star Trek: The Next Generation star will topline and produce a television version of the popular board game Trivial Pursuit, which is being produced by Hasbro-owned Entertainment One.
“Trivial Pursuit is one of the best-known brands in the gaming universe,” Burton said in a statement, saying he’s “thrilled” to partner with Hasbro and its eOne.
For her part, co-producer Tara Long called Burton, “an iconic member of American pop culture for decades,” whose, “love for intellectual curiosity paired with his ability to connect with audiences worldwide make him the perfect partner…”
The show hasn’t announced a network on which it will air.
In September, Burton said on Trevor Noah‘s The Daily Show that he’d mentally moved on from the Jeopardy! situation. “The crazy thing is that when you set your sights on something…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,” Burton explained.
“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, okay, what’s next?'”
Burton added, “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.”
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
