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Changes, changes, changes! The new hosts of the nationally
syndicated movie review show “At the Movies” will be Ben Lyons and Ben
Mankiewicz. Disney-ABC Domestic Television said Tuesday that the new hosts will
take over the show in September when the show’s new season begins.
The show suffered some transformations over the years.
Initially there were Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, then Roger
Ebert and Richard Roeper and now Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz. The two
film critics Ebert and Roeper announced that they were leaving “At the Movies.”
Ben Lyons is a Hollywood
reporter and film critic for “E! News” and others and Ben Mankiewicz hosts
shows for Turner Classic Movies and Sirius Satellite Radio. The new season of
the movie review show “At the Movies” begins on September 6.
“It's an awesome responsibility. We're going to try to reach
an audience that cares about movies,” said Ben Mankiewicz, according to The
Associated Press.
“This is the pinnacle of being a film critic,” said Ben
Lyons.
Ben Mankiewicz is the son of Frank Mankiewicz, the first
president of National Public Radio, and grandson of screenwriter Herman
Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons is the son of movie reviewer Jeffrey Lyons.
Roger Ebert announced he was going to leave the show, saying
that Disney-ABC Domestic Television was taking the show “in a new direction”
and he did not want to be linked with it anymore. Richard Roeper
didn’t come to financial terms for his new contract with Disney-ABC Domestic
Television and he said he would start his work as a critic somewhere else.
Ebert and Gene Siskel’s show began in 1975 for Chicago station WTTW and
then it moved to PBS nationally in 1978 with the renamed “At the Movies,”going
commercial afterward with Tribune Syndication. The show was sold to Buena Vista
Television in 1986 and it was renamed “Siskel & Ebert & the Movies.”
Richard Roeper took Siskel’s place in 2000. Gene Siskel died of a brain tumor
in 1999.
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