Roger Ebert's At the Movies Could Be Canceled

Chicago-based film critic Roger Ebert told fans that his show Ebert Presents: At the Movies could end soon unless he gets some financial assistance. In a blog entry, Ebert wrote that after a contribution from Kanbar Charitable Trust, he and his wife, Chaz, have been paying all of the bills for the show, which airs on public TV.

“Unless we find an angel, our television program will go off the air at the end of its current season,” Ebert said in a frank blog entry about the program. “There. I’ve said it. Usually in television, people use evasive language. Not me. We’ll be gone. I want to be honest about why this is. We can’t afford to finance it any longer.”

Ebert went on to say that, although the show has had financial problems, he considered it to be a great success. The show covers more than 90 percent of the country, airs in all of the top 50 markets and is among the top-viewed shows in public TV.

“We paid for the set, the lighting, and all of the salaries (Chaz and I do not draw one),” Ebert wrote. “We have offices at WTTW, for which, of course, we pay rent. We pay for the director, the camera operators, the assistant producers, the interns, the editors and editing suites, the transmission of the show to American Public Television, lunch on taping days, everything. We also paid for the design and maintenance of the web site, www.ebertpresents.com.”

Ebert wrote that unless an agreement is reached within the next few months, he would have to tell American Public Television that the show will not continue. You can read the full blog entry at the Chicago Sun-Times website.

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