Is it time to start a petition to get LeVar Burton on The View? While the Reading Rainbow/Star Trek star didn’t get the job replacing Alex Trebek on Jeopardy! – Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik landed the gig, BTW – he might have a shot joining Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Sara Haines at the table. Following Meghan McCain’s exit on the show, a source close to the show tells HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that when it comes to finding a replacement, The View is “going to take its time and enjoy finding someone that will work. Everyone wants to rush, but producers feel they can do what Jeopardy did and try some people out and then find who works.”
What Jeopardy! did, for those who forgot, was invite a troupe of trivia-obsessed talent to take over the show for a week or so at a time. Anderson Cooper, Savanah Guthrie, Robin Roberts, Aaron Rodgers, and Ken Jennings had stints, as did LeVar and Mayim. The View’s showrunners want to do something similar because – as the insider tells HollywoodLife – this will allow them to get feedback “from all the ladies in the cast to production [about] who will fit in perfectly.”
Though The View has become more known for its on-air clashes between its co-hosts, specifically the skirmishes between Meghan and Joy, the producers hope to interject some levity back into the long-running program. They are going to make the replacement process “fun,” per the insider, “and whoever gets the permanent position is going to learn on the job.” As to when this final decision might be made, The View kicks off its 25th season after Labor Day on Tuesday, Sept. 7, and the source shares that the show might “run throughout the rest of the year before they choose someone because they want to make the right decision. They don’t want to rush and be wrong and have to do it all over again.”
Thank you all so much again for the privilege and honor it has been for the last four years to work on this show. It really has been incredible,” Meghan said during her last episode on Aug. 6. “It will be referenced in everything I do for the rest of my life. You women have been so incredible to work with. The crew, the producers, everyone worked so hard, and honestly, the audience giving me four years to give my opinion and show my perspective. This has been a really wild ride the past four years of my life.”
“It’s been honestly the best of times and the worst of times in all ways, on and off this show,” she concluded. “It’s been a really incredible, liberating experience, and I will always cherish the time I spent with all of you. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. And I hope that our executive producer, Brian [Teta], can forgive me for making his blood pressure rise for the past four years as much as I probably have.”