First Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper announced that he was leaving the nationally syndicated "At The Movies with Ebert & Roeper," now film critic Roger Ebert said he won't be returning next season either, Associated Press reported.

Yesterday, Richard Roeper, 48, who joined the show eight years ago after former Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskell died of cancer, said he was leaving the weekly program because negotiations to extend his current contract failed.

According to entertainment industry insiders, Disney is considering reinventing the show as a Hollywood news program.

"I wish Disney the best of luck with their new show, whatever form it may take," Roeper said in the statement. "In the meantime, it is my intention to proceed elsewhere with my ninth year as the co-host of a movie review show that honors the standards established by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert more than 30 years ago. I will be free to share the details on that program in the near future."

Following Roeper's announcement, Ebert, 66, wrote in an email to the Associated Press that Disney-ABC Domestic Television had decided to take the program "in a new direction" and he won't be associated with it.

"The show was a wonderful experience. It was a great loss to me when surgery in July 2006 made it impossible for me to appear on the air any longer. [Ebert lost his voice]," Ebert wrote. However, he remained active behind the scenes.

Ebert and Siskel started the program in 1975 with "Sneak Previews" on PBS, with the show later moving to commercial television. Roeper joined the show after Siskel died of a brain tumor in 1999.

The show's production company, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, had no immediate comment on the future of the long-running program.

Ebert and Roeper's move opens speculation that the two are working on a new version of a dueling critics show, with Roger behind the scenes in a producing capacity while Ebert is unlikely ever to return to television.