Ebert's Movie Show Won't Be Back Without Funding

CHICAGO (CBS) -- After just one year, Roger Ebert's latest movie review TV show will be canceled unless he can find additional funding.

"Ebert Presents: At The Movies" uses the same format that Ebert used with the late Gene Siskel. Two critics, Christy Lemire and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, give the movies a thumbs up or down.

Ebert, who has undergone multiple cancer surgeries and is no longer able to speak, also reviews movies, with Bill Kurtis doing the voice-overs.

On his blog, Ebert says that since the Kanbar Charitible Trust's initial $25,000 donation, he and his wife have been funding the show themselves.

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"Unless we find an angel, our television program will go off the air at the end of its current season," Ebert wrote. "I want to be honest about why this is. We can't afford to finance it any longer."

He'd hoped other foundations or individuals would step up to underwrite the show since then, but it hasn't happened.

"Let me say that by any fair measure, "Ebert Presents At The Movies" has been a great success," he wrote.

But the success hasn't translated into money for the show. Unless a donor comes through in the next few days, the show won't return for another season next year.

On Ebert's blog, dozens of fans expressed sadness over the news, and even offered suggestions to raise the money.

The show was launched in January, 2011, and according to Ebert's blog post, is available in 90 percent of the country.

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