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Parents who grew up watching “Reading Rainbow” will now get to pass it on to their children.
On Sept. 29, one of the longest-running and best-loved children’s literacy series took to its Instagram to announce its revival nearly two decades after production ended due to funding challenges.
“After nearly 20 years… Reading Rainbow is returning to motivate, help, and encourage kids to become avid readers with new episodes, new friends, new projects, and of course… new books!” the caption read.
“Make sure to follow the rainbow,” it continued.
LeVar Burton, who hosted the series from its start in 1983 until its demise in 2006, is being replaced by retired librarian and social media influencer Mychal Threets — better known as Mychal the Librarian.
In the video, Threets is shown interacting with kids as he re-introduces the world to the long lost library.
Threets will be joined by a slew of celebrity guests and narrators, including Rylee Arnold, Ezra Sosa, Jamie Chung, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Gabrielle Union, Adam DeVine and more.
The award-winning production will debut as a digital series on KidZuko (a popular YouTube channel) and ReadingRainbow.org on Oct. 4 at 10am ET. New episodes will drop each Saturday through Oct. 25.
It’s unclear if the vintage “Reading Rainbow” theme song will return — but fans are stoked regardless.
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“This is the best thing to happen to us as a country in at least a year,” one fan wrote in the comments.
“Yeah, millennials are healing the world by bringing back what's actually important,” another fan wrote.
“I just screamed so loud!!! My kids are the perfect age and you are the true spiritual successor of Levar Burton. Equally engaging, equally supportive, equally beloved,” a third fan commented.
Threets took to his social media to share his excitement for the show’s revival.
“I was raised on Reading Rainbow, LeVar Burton is my hero. I am a reader, I am a librarian because LeVar Burton and Reading Rainbow so powerfully made us believe we belong in books,” he wrote.
“We’re flying twice as high, butterflies in the sky! Stay tuned…” he added.
A look back at the beloved history of ‘Reading Rainbow’
“Reading Rainbow” was once one of PBS’ most beloved and popular kids’ shows.
The series launched in 1983 with Burton as its host and was a direct response to the “summer loss phenomena,” where kids would lose reading abilities due to not reading during the summer months.
The show eventually “reached more than two million viewers each week,” according to its website, and garnered more than 250 awards, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards.
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It went down in history as the most-watched PBS program in the classroom with a library of over 150 programs — and sold more than 500,000 copies during its 26-year run.
Unfortunately, the show came crashing to a halt in 2006 “due to funding challenges and a growing need to update the show’s concept to adapt to changing technology and delivery methods,” per the website.
The series continued to air re-runs until 2009 before being pulled from the air.
Originally distributed by PBS and produced by Buffalo Toronto Public Media (BTPM) and Nebraska Public Media, the new iteration will be co-produced by Embassy Row and BTPM, according to Axios.
Threets, the show’s new host, has made a name for himself as a library enthusiast and activist.
He resigned from his role as a librarian in 2024 to focus on mental health, but has continued to create content online to spread his joy for the library and encourage viewers to support childhood literacy.
"I don't believe it's me and my message that they're attracted to, but I think what they're attracted to is library joy," Threets said in a 2024 interview with USA TODAY.
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"Which as much as I'm obsessed with library joy, library joy is not mine, it's every library assistant, library shelver, librarian, library lover, school librarian. It's all their joy,” he added.
