During what has been an otherwise difficult year for public media, there’s a rare bit of good news coming from the sector: Reading Rainbow is coming back.
The classic PBS series, produced by Buffalo Toronto Public Media out of Buffalo, New York, is being revived, the station says.
The new iteration of the show will be a digital series, debuting Saturday, Oct. 4, on KidZuko, the kids-focused YouTube channel operated by Sony Pictures Television. Mychal Threets, a librarian and digital creator, will host the new version of Reading Rainbow.
New episodes will arrive every subsequent Saturday through Oct. 25, joined by companion vertical videos, a spokesperson for BTPM says.
The original Reading Rainbow was a staple of PBS for decades, running from 1983 until 2006. LeVar Burton hosted the program, which celebrated reading and literacy, a mission that the new iteration will build on.
A trailer for the new edition of the show showed a number of celebrity guests that will appear, including Dancing With the Stars‘ Rylee Arnold and Ezra Sosa, Fantastic Four actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach and books narrated by the likes of Adam Devine, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen.
Of course, the world of public media is a vastly different one than it was in 1983 or 2006. Earlier this year, for the first time in decades, the Trump Administration successfully rescinded $1.1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasters, including PBS and NPR.
The end result will mean cuts at local PBS stations. Against that backdrop, the revival of one of PBS’ classic shows, even if it won’t ultimately be for TV, qualifies as a positive piece of news in an otherwise tough moment for the medium.
You can see the trailer below.
