The Replacements

As we mentioned yesterday, Richard Roeper has announced that he is leaving the At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper show.
Then, Roger Ebert also announced yesterday that he too is breaking all ties with the show he created and was very involved with behind the scenes.
Looks like Disney didn’t want to pay up!
Luckily for Ebert, he still owns part of the rights for the famous “Two Thumbs Up” slogan, along with Siskel’s widow.
But Disney doesn’t care about losing the slogans. They’re more interested in redoing the show. Apparently they’re going to try and target it more towards a younger generation.
And how are they going to do that?
They’re getting two much younger hosts, that’s how.
Taking over for the irreplaceable Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper are two basically unknown “critics.”
First to join will be Ben Lyons (above left), the E! Entertainment film critic. He’s also the son of well-known film critic Jeffrey Lyons.
And joining Ben will be the similarly named Ben Mankiewicz, the Turner Classic Movies host and also son of Herman Mankiewicz the writer of Citizen Kane.
So aside from the two being named Ben and having famous dads, they are nowhere near in comparison to having the knowledge or experience of Siskel & Ebert or Ebert & Roeper.
A young face won’t necessarily bring in more viewers.
Will it?????
[Image via WENN.]