The good news is, Roger Ebert is bringing back the show At the Movies in January 2011 to the place where it all started, public access television station PBS with new co-hosts Christy Lemire and Elvis Mitchell.
The bad news is, it won’t be on KION/CBS or ReelzChannel and won’t have Roger Ebert’s former co-host Richard Roeper, his former co-host Michael Phillips, or his former co-host A.O. Scott. I have mixed feelings about this.
As excited as I am for Roger Ebert to be getting his show back, I question his decision on wanting to bring the show back to public access television. Usually, when you make it big, you don’t go back to working a smaller venue. For example, you wouldn’t see Conan O’Brien go back to just being a writer for The Simpsons or Saturday Night Live after hitting it big hosting Late Night, The Tonight Show, and his new show Conan.
I also wonder why Richard Roeper is not going to be one of the co-hosts, seeing as he was Gene Siskel’s replacement and hosted with Roger until Roger left. Also, after they both left the show, there were rumors that they were going to do another show together sometime down the road. Having said that, I hope Christy Lemire and Elvis Mitchell do a good job hosting the show.
Finally, I am glad that Roger himself will be making occasional appearances as well. However, with his laptop to aid him, I was wondering four things: 1. What happens if he misspells a word? Does the voice pronounce it the way it is typed? For example, if he types Dye Hard instead of Die Hard would it recognize it? 2. If the title contained foul language like bitch, would it say it? 3. Would it be able to pronounce a long word like Nitrophenylenediamine (which means, “A dye of an intense red color”)? 4. Would it be able to recognize a title if it was in another language like y tu mama tambien?
Roger Ebert presents At the Movies officially makes its return to television via public access television station PBS beginning in January 2011.