Despite a strong campaign to replace the late Alex Trebek as the host of Jeopardy!, LeVar Burton wasn’t selected as the new host, but it seems that he’ll get a game show to call his own after all. LeVar Burton has joined forces with eOne to develop a game show based on the classic board game Trivial Pursuit.
LeVar Burton will host the Trivial Pursuit game show as well as executive produce the project. “Trivial Pursuit is one of the best-known brands in the gaming universe. I am thrilled to have partnered with Hasbro and eOne to bring this beloved game to market as a premium show for television,” Burton said. This isn’t the first time that Trivial Pursuit has been given the game show treatment, as a series loosely based on the game aired on The Family Channel from 1993-94 hosted by Wink Martindale. There was also a syndicated version, Trivial Pursuit: America Plays, that aired from 2008-09. In a statement, Tara Long, President of Global Unscripted Television at eOne, said:
LeVar Burton has been an iconic member of American pop culture for decades from Roots to Reading Rainbow to Star Trek and beyond. His love for intellectual curiosity paired with his ability to connect with audiences worldwide make him the perfect partner to bring Hasbro’s beloved trivia game to households in a new and exciting way.
I have somehow gone my entire life without playing Trivial Pursuit, so I’ll rely on Wikipedia for an explanation. The game finds players moving pieces around the board, with the squares they land on determining the subject they’ll be asked about, ranging from entertainment, history, science, and more. Once the player has answered each category correctly, they must answer a question from a category selected by the other players in order to win the game.