The end for ‘At the Movies’

After a revolving door of hosts and much backstage drama, it’s finally a wrap for “At the Movies,” the TV show that made celebrities out of dueling film reviewers Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.

But Ebert says he and his wife are going ahead with plans to produce a new movie review program with the working title “Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies.”

On Thursday, Disney-ABC Domestic Television confirmed that it would cancel “At the Movies,” which has aired since 1986, in August.

Its current hosts are film critics Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of The New York Times.

“This was a very difficult decision, especially considering the program’s rich history and iconic status within the entertainment industry, but from a business perspective it became clear this weekly, half-hour, broadcast syndication series was no longer sustainable,” the company said in a statement.

Ebert – who was forced to rely on on-camera substitutes for “At the Movies” after cancer surgery in 2006 made it impossible for him to speak, and who left the show entirely in 2008 – sounded a philosophical note about its demise in a blog post Thursday.

“It isn’t only ‘At the Movies’ that died,” he wrote. “It was a whole genre of television.”

He added that he and his wife, Chaz, are “deeply involved” in talks with production companies for a new movie-reviewing show that will take advantage of online social-media services as well as traditional television.

Ebert said they’ve held video tests with potential hosts and know who they will use, adding that “the Thumbs will return” – referring to his and Siskel’s well-known “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” reviews.

Web sites have made it possible for viewers these days to glean a wide diversity of opinions about the latest movie releases.

But when Siskel – who died in 1999 – and Ebert premiered their original movie program, “Sneak Previews,” on a Chicago PBS station in the 1970s, many newspapers did not have their own film critics.

Chicago columnist Richard Roeper replaced the late Siskel in 2000. Then, in 2008, Disney decided to try to update the program by hiring two younger co-hosts, Ben Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons.

That move was harshly criticized by film fans, who dismissed Lyons in particular as a lightweight. The following year, as ratings drooped, Scott and Phillips were brought in as part of an attempt to return the show to its roots.