Ebert Revives At the Movies for PBS with Elvis Mitchell and Christy Lemire

No one else but Ebert would do something this cool. Because it’s PBS, he doesn’t have to go the traditional route of “two white guys,” he can change it up and hire those who do the job well. This will be on my must-watch list, as it is with Anne Thompson, who just wrote about it on Thompson on Hollywood. Elvis Mitchell and Christy Lemire will be interesting to watch, even if it likely won’t have quite the same reach as it would have on ABC, though I suspect it will still have a pretty decent influence on Academy members, who are known PBS watchers:

“Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies,” a weekly half-hour film review program, was announced today by its producers, Chaz and Roger Ebert. The program continues the 35-year-old run of a reviewing format first introduced by Gene Siskel and Ebert and later by Ebert and Richard Roeper. It will return to its birthplace, launching nationally on public television with presenting station WTTW Chicago, where it began in 1975 as “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You” and then in 1976 as “Sneak Previews,” became the highest rated entertainment show in PBS history. The original format moved into syndication as “At the Movies” in 1982 with Tribune Entertainment and a quarter-century with Buena Vista Television.

The Eberts said the new program will air in January 2011, and in addition to reviewing new movies will expand into coverage of New Media, special segments on classics, on-demand viewing and genres, and an extended website. It will use the copyrighted “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down”® format made famous by Siskel & Ebert.