Per Quasi’s link, the new show is Ebert Presents At the Movies, with two new co-hosts (Christy Lemire of AP and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com). It’s a half-hour show being carried on PBS stations; Roger is scheduled to make appearances in a segment called “Roger’s Office” where his computer-generated voice will be used (and actually, the debut episode had Werner Herzog reading Ebert’s piece for him). There will also be recurring segments with a few correspondents: Kim Morgan on classic movies (she had a piece on The Third Man in the debut), Omar Moore on “social issues and technology”, and Kartina Richardson, a “filmmaker and blogger out of Boston.” Ebert is credited as Managing Editor of the show, with his wife Chaz as Executive Producer.
They appear to have gone out of their way to include youth and the blogoverse; it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. I thought the first episode was a bit uneven; although Lemire and Vishnevetsky did appear to have fun, it was odd that Vishnevetsky gave all the movies “thumbs up” while Lemire gave them all “thumbs down” (reviewed: No Strings Attached, The Company Men, The Way Back, The Green Hornet, The Dilemma). I like Lemire; she seems professional and comfortable in front of the camera (she appears to be leading the discussion), and I like that she voiced my own concern when they recapped at the end of the show, asking Vishnevetsky, “What is your deal? Do you like everything?” To his credit, he responded with a good-natured “I think the problem is you just hate cinema, Christy.” For his part, Vishnevetsky struck me as, I dunno, a bit eager, maybe - entirely too willing to forgive faults; he didn’t disagree with Lemire when she cited things she didn’t like, just disagreed that those things were enough to merit the dreaded “thumbs down”. They both had a couple of good “I don’t agree at all” moments in the reviews that were reminiscent of Roger and Gene.
Overall, it’s got a lot of potential. I want to see Lemire review something she liked, and I want to see Vishnevetsky review something he didn’t, but it was just one show. I’m sure they’re not as one-dimensional as they may have seemed.