After an 18-month nationwide search, Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert has found a permanent co-host for his syndicated TV series on his own home turf. Sun-Times TV and radio columnist Robert Feder reported Tuesday that Richard Roeper, yet another Sun-Times columnist, will be Ebert’s new partner, replacing Gene Siskel, who died of complications from brain surgery in February 1999.
A formal statement from Disney’s Buena Vista Television is expected this week, Feder said.
Roeper has written about the movies and is the author of “He Rents, She Rents: The Ultimate Film Guide to the Best Women’s Films and Guy Movies.”
Feder quoted an unnamed official as saying that when Roeper co-hosted Ebert’s TV show in March, the duo “demonstrated unmistakable chemistry. The great thing was neither one seemed to defer to the other. They had that combative give and take that everyone was looking for.”
