Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz no longer At the Movies

Just found out that Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz are no longer the hosts of At the Movies.

Thank the gods.

I remember Siskel & Ebert & the Movies and more recently At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper. I enjoyed Ebert & Roeper quite a bit - I'd watch it when I could, even though I don't see a lot of movies (in theatres.) After Ebert left, I found myself also enjoying (but of course not always agreeing with) the replacement hosts. Of the replacement hosts, A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips.

I'm not sure what happened, but Roeper and Phillips, who seemed to be Ebert's permanent replacement, were replaced by Lyons and Mankiewicz, two younger 'critics' with the studios possible goal to entice younger audiences to watch. And it was dreadful. All the sophistication (if one can call two grown men disagreeing over a 90 minute piece of entertainment) was gone. It felt like romper room.

I watched a couple episodes of this new show and gave up on it. And apparently so did a million others.

The studio in charge of the show seemed to have come to their senses and are replacing the kids with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, two longtime guest hosts of Ebert & Roeper.

Starting September 5th, At the Movies will be watchable again.

Unless they invite Jay Leno to guest host an episode. That would be awful.