How Did LeVar Burton Do as Host?

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Moderators: alietr, trainman, econgator, dhkendall

Rate LeVar Burton on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is best.

1
4
5%
2
6
7%
3
16
19%
4
14
16%
5
12
14%
6
16
19%
7
10
12%
8
4
5%
9
1
1%
10
3
3%
 
Total votes: 86

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alietr
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Re: How Did LeVar Burton Do as Host?

Post by alietr »

I will say that the "Yes!" bothered me, mostly because it was incongruous (he didn't save it for tough gets; they were plentiful on easy clues as well) and it put the focus on him rather than the contestants. More important in my book were the mistakes and the pauses. He's not there to be a storyteller, he's there to make everything run so smoothly that viewers hardly notice him. I don't doubt that they could make him better with time, but he did not display that at all during the time they gave him.
Bamaman
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Re: How Did LeVar Burton Do as Host?

Post by Bamaman »

DBear wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:11 pm
alietr wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:38 am They should have had David Faber go before LeVar and show him how it's done. What a contrast between the two.
And the contrast is bringing up more & more questions. Did LeVar really try to wing it without any prep? There's no way these results could arise from chance alone given the same prep time. :?
Are they doing ten shows a week still? If so, he and Robin were there as part of the same group at the same time. But she seemed to be very well prepared and did a fine job. If she got the job I would have zero problems with that.
brick
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Re: How Did LeVar Burton Do as Host?

Post by brick »

I feel like he got a terrible sinking feeling in his first game when he realized he was probably going to eliminate someone before Final J and I’m not sure he ever really recovered. It’s too bad. I had high hopes for him.
seaborgium
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Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:31 am

Re: How Did LeVar Burton Do as Host?

Post by seaborgium »

I remember his calm, measured presence in $25,000 Pyramid (reruns in the '90s) and was surprised by him here.
Peter the accountant
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Re: How Did LeVar Burton Do as Host?

Post by Peter the accountant »

I really wanted LeVar to at least be OK. I would have loved it for him to slip into the growing group of guest hosts who were fine and not memorable. But it was not to be. The train wreck on Monday improved to a mess on Tuesday and an ordinary level of bad on Wednesday. By Friday, the game was at least running mostly OK. But he never stopped overacting. Really overacting. WAY overacting.

It also seemed like he wasn't really ready for the speed at which J! can sometimes move. Read a clue, and 10 seconds later you will have ruled on the response and be half way through reading the next clue. 6, 7, even 8 clues a minute is not unusual. He got closer by the end, but it never felt like he was comfortable with the pace.
--Peter
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cinemaniax7
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Re: How Did LeVar Burton Do as Host?

Post by cinemaniax7 »

I felt that he improved after the first day, but overall, he was just okay. Nevertheless, I'm glad he got his shot.
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