The day has finally come, dear reader!
LeVar Burton will finally make his guest hosting debut on Jeopardy! this week, much to literally everyone’s excitement.
But according to People, while many of us were brimming with joy at Burton’s forthcoming gig, Burton himself was feeling some pressure to make sure his performance was up to par. During an interview on Good Morning America, Burton divulged the fact that his focus going in was to “be as good as Alex was,” but ultimately, he had to learn to just let his own charm shine through instead.
“For me, my standard of excellence is so intense that my initial approach was to try and be as good as Alex was. Of course, I realized right away that that was an impossibility. The man had 37 years to perfect his mastery,” Burton shared.
Luckily for him though, his wife Stephanie (who also served as his makeup artist for all his tapings) was there to help steer him in the right direction.
“I came back after taping the first episode and I said, ‘So, how did I do?’ She said, ‘Eh, it wasn’t you,’” he explained. “So, you know, thank God for marrying a woman who will tell you the truth—what you need to know when you need to know it.”
He added, “So after I got the heads up from Steph, I just went out there and tried to bring as much LeVar to the moment as a possibly could. And I’m hoping that that worked out better.”
First of all, shoutout to Black women for always getting you together with love and honesty when you need it the most. Secondly, y’all remember that scene in Black Panther when T’Challa was getting beat up by M’Baku on Challenge Day? That was a rhetorical question, I know you do.
Do you remember what the Queen Mother yelled out to T’Challa when she saw M’Baku was m’beating up her son, though?
“Show them who you are.” SHOW. THEM. WHO. YOU. ARE.
That’s all you’ve gotta do, LeVar. Just show us who you are. We’re all rooting for you and we can’t wait to see you shine.
Tune in every day this week to catch LeVar Burton in action as he guest hosts Jeopardy! at 7 p.m.ET.