And while I’m on the subject of Ebert, he just announced the new show today. Key quote:

I can also say that we held video tests with several potential hosts two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and know who we will use. We also know we will have a strong web presence. We will go full-tilt New Media: Television, net streaming, cell phone apps, Facebook, Twitter, iPad, the whole enchilada. The disintegration of the old model creates an opening for us. I’m more excited than I would be if we were trying to do the same old same old. I’ve grown up with the internet. I came aboard back when MCI Mail was the e-mail of choice. I had a forum on CompuServe when it ruled the web. My web site and blog at the Sun-Times site have changed the way I work, and even the way I think. When I lost my speech, I speeded up instead of slowing down.

We’ll also go New Cinema. Not just the One Weekend Wonders, although you gotta have ’em, but indie films, foreign films, documentaries, restored classics, the new Herzog, the new Bahrani, the new Almodovar. What’s new on Instant Streaming. What great movies should everyone see? Hey, Paramount just announced $1 million for ten $100,000 movies. Those kinds of films. What kind of a real movie lover cares who has the “exclusive” first trailer in the newest extrusion of the “Transformer” franchise? It’s time to smarten up.

I’d watch it the way I “watch” Diggnation. Asynchronous, on my schedule, sometimes with headphones while I’m doing something else, purely as an audio podcast, looking up to see what they’re laughing about once in a while, sometimes on my iPhone, sometimes on my laptop, and sometimes on a television. Sometimes I’ll download it, sometimes my Tivo will, and at yet others I will wish I was watching them live. It’s the new model of television, and I’m glad he gets it. I’m glad he is, in fact, counting on it.