Lifelong youngsters’s literacy advocate LeVar Burton will host the 94th Scripps Nationwide Spelling Bee for the televised semifinals on June 1 and finals on June 2, 2022, close to Washington, D.C.
This might maybe be a superb alternative and the proper process for the completed actor, director, and educator. Burton is the previous host and government producer of PBS’s Studying Rainbow, one of many longest-running youngsters’s tv exhibits in historical past. He has entertained and taught generations of youngsters about not solely the significance of studying but in addition its enjoyment.
In response to a press launch assertion, “The collection of Mr. Burton as host aligns with the mission of the Scripps Nationwide Spelling Bee,” mentioned Dr. J. Michael Durnil, government director of the Scripps Nationwide Spelling Bee. “To have such a distinguished advocate for kids’s literacy concerned on this particular and distinctive competitors is an ideal match. Now we have the identical targets: to coach tomorrow’s leaders and construct studying competency in all younger individuals.”
“Internet hosting the Scripps Nationwide Spelling Bee will probably be an honor,” Burton mentioned in a press launch. “Like lots of people, I look ahead to the competitors yearly and am excited to be part of this excellent custom that celebrates excellence.”
Famend for his extraordinary contributions, Burton has been nominated for 3 Primetime Emmy Awards and 27 Daytime Emmys, culminating in 21 wins. “Studying Rainbow,” in its lifetime, has received greater than 25 awards, together with the esteemed George Foster Peabody Award.
Burton was additionally nominated twice for the Finest Spoken Phrase Album Grammy Award and received in 1999 for narrating, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
After a few years of air time on ESPN, it’s anticipated that the 2022 competitors will probably be accessible to the widest viewers in its practically 100-year historical past, with the semifinals and finals airing on nationwide tv networks ION and Bounce. The E.W. Scripps Co. is the longtime steward of the spelling bee competitors and presently owns ION and Bounce.
Burton didn’t get the Jeopardy! gig, nevertheless it absolutely has opened up a portal for an onslaught of provides.
Good for him!
