Roger Ebert and co-hosts hit the air

Roger Ebert is returning to the small screen.

The famous film critic stopped appearing on television movie review shows in 2006 when cancer surgery left him unable to speak. But now, he has his own segment on a new program, "Ebert Presents at the Movies." The weekly show debuts Friday on PBS (at 7 on WLIW/21 and 10:30 on WNET/13).

The show is necessary in today's entertainment world, Ebert says.

"Can you think of another TV show that deals with the movies as movies instead of as celebrity showcases?" Ebert says during an interview at the Chicago television studio where the show is produced. His laptop computer speaks his typed answers.

"We don't praise everything," he says.

The show will feature co-hosts Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com. Ebert will use his computer voice for the segment "Roger's Office," which, he says, will focus on "reviews and rants."

The new show will be produced at Chicago's WTTW, where Ebert and Gene Siskel started taping "Sneak Previews" 35 years ago. The pair's iconic "two thumbs" (up or down) reviews became one of the most recognizable judgments in film criticism - and they'll be featured on the new show.

Ebert, 68, appeared with a series of co-hosts after Siskel died in 1999. A year later, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper joined him. Ebert had to leave television in 2006 when he had a cancerous growth removed from his salivary gland and later had emergency surgery after a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation.

Ebert says viewers should look to the show for "the same thing they should get from a good critic - ideas about how better to invest two hours of their lives."

Ebert selected Lemire and Vishnevetsky, he says, because he was looking for reviewers who were intelligent, funny and articulate. The pair of young reviewers will sit in red movie theater seats as they debate films.

"He truly cares about the legacy," Lemire, 38, said. "He's put a lot of faith in us, which is humbling. He's also made it easy to step into those feet and be our best."