Is CNN airing an edited version?

From Ebert's memoir Life Itself, on the move to Tribune Entertainment in 1982:

"We went in to syndication that fall, after Joe (Antelo) lined up sixty or seventy markets to join the Tribune stations (except for their New York outlet which wouldn't stoop to carry a show from Chicago)."

From the film, we also learn this included Los Angeles, if I recall correctly.

On the move to Disney, if you're interested:

"We left Tribune because of an oversight and coincidence. We went to NATPE in New Orleans that year without our new contracts having been offered by Tribune - not Joe Antelo's doing. 'Technically, Ephraim told us, 'they shouldn't be selling you next year if they don't have you under contract'. Gene printed a card that read WORKING WITHOUT A CONTRACT and printed it inside the lapel of his jacket. He did it to kid Antelo and the Tribune guys.

That first evening, walking out of our hotel ('always together') we ran into Jamie Bennett, a program executive Gene had known at CBS/Channel 2 in Chicago. He flashed his joke card to Jamie who said, 'You boys ever been to Brennan's?' He took us to dinner, questioned us about our new contract situation, and said he was working with Disney to start a new syndication division, Buena Vista Television. At that dinner a deal was discussed, Ephraim firmed up the details, and we left Tribune for Disney and its powerful base of owned and operated stations. 'I would have done the same thing,' Joe told us.

Hardly a sell-out or a compelling story. Gene was punished by his paper the Chicago Tribune for bailing on them, and they promptly demoted the guy and to a lower salary. He was never the official film critic for the Tribune after that, and it must have hurt him given that he, much like Roger, valued his newspaper job far more than the television gig.

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Interesting that the doc left out the competition - Lyons and Gabler on Sneak previews and eventually even Rex Reed and Dixie Whatley

Keep in mind that it's a documentary based on Ebert's memoirs. The interviews are restricted to his friends and the colleagues/critics who knew him well or whose careers he influenced (like Morris or Scorsese). I never got the impression that R.E. knew either Lyons or Gabler. He didn't even watch much television apart from a couple of shows and it's likely that he was indifferent to the successors on Sneak Previews. They weren't "the competition" because no critics on television ever came close to hitting the ratings or rivalling the media profile of Siskel and Ebert. There was no contest.

Besides, Siskel did say many years back that he is not friends with celebrities - Ebert I can't say

The same was not really true of Ebert, although he's a bit evasive about this in the book. He was a close friend of the director Gregory Nava and his wife Anna Thomas, as well as Paul Cox, which he's honest about. And with others he became (in his own words) "if not friends, at least very friendly" including Werner Herzog, Scorsese, Altman, Ramin Bahrani, Errol Morris, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau (a surprise to me), Shirley MacLaine, Clint Eastwood (who he went fishing with at least once), William Friedkin, Mike Leigh, Sissy Spacek, Michael Caine, Atom Egoyan, Paul Schrader, Brian De Palma, Francis Coppola, and Jason Reitman.

What I find peculiar about his phrasing is that most reporters are on friendly terms with the subjects they interview, otherwise they wouldn't get repeated access. The implication is that he was closer with these people than most film critics are with industry people, and there are a few too many on his list. If Gene had known about this, I'm sure he would have scolded the guy big time.

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