To follow-up on this morning’s story about Ebert & Roeper leaving At the Movies, Nikki Finke is now reporting that the new hosts will be Ben Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons (Ben & Ben).  Who the fuck are they, you rightly ask?

…a Generation Why duo who only got the gig due to nepotism. Ben Lyons is the nobody son of Jeffrey Lyons, the film critic world’s biggest hack and quote whore with zero credibility, while Ben Mankiewicz is the slacker host on Turner Classic Movies, whose only claim to fame is that he’s a watered-down member of the famous film family. Now, there’s a working definition of the death of film criticism for you.

More on Mankiewicz:

Son of political figure, Frank Mankiewicz, grandson of famed screenwriter, Herman Mankiewicz, and great-nephew of screenwriter, producer and director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz.  He is the brother of NBC News reporter Josh Mankiewicz. He is married to Contessa Kellogg. [Wiki]

More on Lyons:

Ivanka Trump once called Lyons’ house collect when they were kids. They went to the same school as children and have several mutual friends [probably all insufferable private school shitbags].   Lyons deejays every week at L.A. hot spots the Dime and the Roosevelt Hotel. Ben dated Whitney Port from the MTV reality show The Hills. [Wiki]

Wow, a guy married to “Contessa Kellogg” and MC Boarding School, this sounds like a blast.  I’d never been worried about the competition from traditional media before, but now that they’ve hired these two wunderkinds so uniquely in touch with the voice of the common folk…  I hate to say it, but this might just kill the internet.

Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper have both announced separately that they’ll be leaving “At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper”.

Ebert, who has been sidelined as co-host of "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper" since 2006 while fighting cancer, said on Monday that the show’s Walt Disney Co-owned syndicator wanted to take the show "in a new direction."
"After 33 years on the air, 23 of them with Disney, the studio has decided to take the program named ‘Siskel & Ebert’ and then ‘Ebert & Roeper’ in a new direction. I will no longer be associated with it," Ebert said in his statement.

Sounds like Disney wants to F with the format.  Roeper says:

Roeper said he intends to "proceed elsewhere" and co-host another film review show that "honors the standards established by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert more than 30 years ago." [Yahoo]

That would seem to imply that Disney wants to do something that doesn’t honor those standards, now wouldn’t it.  My guess is that some exec at Disney who’s neither young nor cool had some ideas about how to make the show young and cool.  Here is a list of my guesses as to the new direction the show will go:

Cyrus & Jonas Bros
Daisy Fuentes & Nick Cannon
Flav & Tequila
Seltzer & Friedberg
Kenan & Kel
Daly & Carlson
Tyra & Seacrest
Fraser & Electra
Sagat & Mandel
Rogan & Tucker Max
Watson & Crick
Busey, Busey, Busey & Busey (LLC)