Here’s who Jeopardy! fans want to become full-time host of show after Alex Trebek’s cancer death
JEOPARDY! fans have spoken - and they want LeVar Burton to become the full-time host of the show after his debut this week.
Following Alex Trebek's death from cancer in 2020, the show has been rotating guests hosts each week.
According to a recent survey conducted by , which asked a nationally representative sample of 1,003 Americans to weigh in on how ABC’s long-running game show has evolved .
Of those polled, 45 percent tuned into the initial broadcast of the , while another 28 percent saw clips after the airdate.
After that one episode, four out of five (79 percent) respondents
This pole determined that the actor was the third most popular choice, behind and executive producer Mike Richards.
However, it also , Dr. Mehmet Oz, and CNBC’s David Ferber, who’s scheduled to take over next week on August 2.
The survey also found LeVar to be especially popular among older respondents; 86 percent of the panelists who picked him were above the age of 45.
Men also responded more positively than women, not just to LeVar's hosting skills (69 percent vs. 47 percent) but to the show itself – they were twice as likely to claim that they watch every episode of Jeopardy! as it airs (32 percent vs. 15 percent).
This doesn’t mean its appeal is split along gender lines; in fact, 86 percent of all respondents reported having a positive opinion of Jeopardy! in general, while less than 1 percent – only five of the 1,003 people polled – actively dislike the series.
And, of course, that’s not counting the more than 260,000 fans online who’ve signed an online petition within the last year, urging Sony Pictures Entertainment to hire Burton as Trebek’s permanent replacement.
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, who first shared news of his pancreatic cancer diagnosis in March 2019, .
first began trialing guest hosts on March 8 with Ken Jennings and will continue through August 13 with Fox sportscaster Joe Buck.
