Finally, some good news involving PBS. Reading Rainbow, the beloved children’s program hosted for over two decades by LeVar Burton, is officially back. Yes, we already have the theme song stuck in our heads. The new iteration of Reading Rainbow will air on PBS (the channel hasn’t announced a premiere date as of this writing) and will be hosted by Mychal Threets, who currently promotes children’s literacy on his TikTok account as Mychal the Librarian. He also serves as the resident librarian for PBS Kids, per People.
The series announced its return in an appropriately nostalgic, sepia-toned video on social media. It also introduced a whole slew of “new friends” and celebrity guest stars, including The Bear‘s Ebon Moss-Bachrach (who professed his desire to “read a book to some cats”), Rylee Arnold and Ezra Sosa from Dancing With The Stars, and Bellen Woodard, the 14-year-old author of More Than Peach. Jamie Chung, Gabrielle Union, Adam DeVine, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, and more will also join to narrate new books. “In the meantime, make sure to follow the rainbow!” Threets concluded the clip.
Reading Rainbow‘s first iteration launched in 1983 and “became the most watched PBS program in the classroom,” per its site. It won a total of 26 Emmy Awards (including 10 for outstanding series) during its 26 year run. In a 2024 interview with People, Burton spoke of what hosting the show meant to him. “As a Black man who comes from people for whom it would have been illegal to have the facility of literacy, to have grown up and become a symbol of literacy, an acknowledged advocate for literacy, especially childhood literacy in this country, that’s no small thing in my view,” he said.
