This news definitely gets two thumbs down. Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Time critic who has been telling TV viewers how they should spend their money at the box office for more than 30 years, has announced he is parting ways with his nationally syndicated show. Ebert, who has been unable to co-host At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper for the last two years because of health issues, told the AP that Disney-ABC Domestic Television had decided to take the show "in a new direction" that he would rather not be associated with. This announcement comes just a day after co-host Richard Roeper announced he would not be renewing his contract.Ebert made the show popular by bickering with Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel, whom Roeper replaced permanently in 2000, after Siskel died of a brain tumor in 1999. While Ebert has not announced his future plans, Roeper says he plans to "to proceed elsewhere... as the cohost of a movie review show that honors the standards established by Gene Siskel...
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Film critic Roger Ebert is to undergo surgery today, following complications from several cancer-related surgeries. Ebert, who has been a critic at the Chicago Sun-Times for 40 years, has been on hiatus from his show, At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper for over a year, with guest hosts filling in. One of the operations he has undergone, which removed a growth on a salivary gland, left him unable to speak. The critic, however, has continued to write reviews. — Anna Dimond
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The Ebert & Roeper series is no longer all thumbs, up or down, as Roger Ebert — who has been MIA from the show for 14 months (due to cancer surgery) — and distributor Disney hit a stalemate in contract negotiations. Ebert, however, denies demanding the removal of the thumbs-up/down rating system. "[Disney] made a first offer... which I considered offensively low. I responded with a counter offer. They did not reply to this, and... ordered the thumbs removed," Ebert writes on his website. "This is not something I expected after an association of over 22 years. I had made it clear the thumbs could remain during good-faith negotiations."In a statement, Disney wishes Ebert a full recovery and says they hope to have him back on the show as soon as he is able.Anyone else here date back to Siskel and Ebert's Sneak Previews?
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Film critic Roger Ebert told Chicago Sun-Times readers on Thursday that after being "completely out of it" for the two months following surgeries to repair bleeding from a cancerous growth, he is teaching his atrophied muscles to walk again, and expects to be back at work full-time in time to cover the next Academy Awards. Until then, Ebert's first film review since his incapacitation is online today, for Helen Mirren's The Queen.... John Forsythe, diagnosed with colon cancer on Sept. 28, has been treated for the disease and is now recovering at a hospital. "He seems to be in good spirits," reports the Dynasty alum's spokesman.
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