With the restart of “Reading Rainbow”, children’s programming is going to become much more colorful.
This weekend, the classic TV show – which aired more than a decade ago – returns as an interactive streaming program called “Reading Rainbow Live”. CBS News’ Vladimir Duthiers was was invited to appear as a guest following the announcement of the “CBS Mornings” program.
The show may look and sound a little different than it used to, but the message is always the same: Reading can take you anywhere and help you be anything. Now, this message will be conveyed through music and by a diverse cast of young performers known as Rainbows.
“We really wanted to make sure the kids could see themselves in the Rainbows,” creative director Amy Guglielmo told CBS News.
Representing their viewers is a responsibility that the Rainbows – including Kendall Joseph, Isabella Wager and Eli Hamilton – take on.
“We have this opportunity to give voices to children and people of color, I think it’s so … wonderful,” Hamilton said. “I really think it’s so special because as a kid, I always wondered, ‘When will I see myself on TV?’ And now, I’m here giving this voice to other people, you know? “
“I think a lot of time has passed for that, you know? said the bet. “And I think it’s time for many of us to go back and give this space to other people.”
Launched in 1983 by beloved host LeVar Burton, “Reading Rainbow” has been a household and classroom fixture across the United States for more than two decades. It was created to deal with what was known as the “summer loss phenomenon”: the idea that children lose some of their reading skills during the summer from school.
This new recurrence faces the loss of a different species: the pandemic.
Executive producer Steven Beer took the idea to Nancy Hammond, which oversees the “Reading Rainbow” brand.
“There is no magic book that tells you how to act during a pandemic …” Beer said. “And it was like bringing something so simple and basic, like books, music, dancing and adventure, it was just a great getaway. So simple, but really so important right now.”
The next program will not be broadcast on PBS like its predecessor, but its format will be familiar to the distance learning generation. Viewers can watch “Reading Rainbow Live” online.
“It was created … not to be a passive activity where kids are just watching something on screen. It’s active,” Hammond told CBS News. “Once the children see the event, they will continue dancing. They will sing these songs because it will stick to them.”
Director Bat-Sheva Guez brought this vision to life.
Guez said the goal was to “create a space that is, as it were, familiar, genuine and serious”, so spectators would just want to get involved and be part of the clubhouse.
Joseph, one of the Rainbows, said, “I feel like our imagination is like our greatest superpower.”
“For me, reading books when I was young – really helped me to, I like, to dream and to believe that I could become whatever I wanted to be,” Joseph said. “One of my goals with this show is to give this message to the younger generation.”
“Reading Rainbow Live” premieres on Sunday, March 6 at 12:30 p.m. eastern standard time. It will be broadcast on the virtual Looped platform.
You can find more information about the program here.
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