LeVar Burton shares his thoughts after recording guest-hosting episodes of Jeopardy!

Burton spoke with the Associated Press last week after pre-recording his episodes. He had let the producers know of his interest in hosting, but his candidacy was also supported by a petition drive, which has garnered more than 250,000 signatures to date.

Burton said he had one day of rehearsal then, the next day, he filmed five back-to-back episodes. His wife, Stephanie Cozart Burton, was there to do his makeup and ended up coaching him after the first episode didn’t turn out to their liking. He told himself, “You’re not going to be as smooth as Alex, let go of that. But what you can bring to the table is you. So that became my point of focus. And when it did, I started having fun.”

Burton sees the show as an opportunity to bring something educational as well as entertaining, like his other work. And he said that for the next host to be a person of color would be yet another first that would say something about us and be an opportunity to continue the conversations around whiteness as the normative default.

To read Burton’s full interview, head on over to APnews.com, and to find out how to watch Jeopardy! this week, with LeVar Burton hosting, visit jeopardy.com/watch.