Bobby Rivers

For the Jon English character, see All Together Now (Australian TV series). Bobby Rivers is an American television, radio personality and actor. Rivers was the host of the now-defunct Top 5 show on the Food Network, and Watch Bobby Rivers, a critically acclaimed prime-time celebrity talk show on VH1. He blazed trails to achieve the first in many things on television for African Americans. 2Early life & career Rivers, who grew up in South Central Los Angeles during the tumultuous 1960's, graduated from Marquette University in Wisconsin. Rivers' first television appearance was on a 1970 syndicated classic film trivia game show. He was a high school student. During those times on "The Movie Game", shot in Hollywood, he was the program's first African-American contestant and its youngest winner. After working in Milwaukee radio, he made his professional television debut in 1979 on Milwaukee's ABC affiliate, WISN-TV, as the city's first African-American film critic on TV. He did this as a contributor on Milwaukee's edition of "PM Magazine", a syndicated show that had such national hosts as Matt Lauer, Mary Hart and Leeza Gibbons. During that time, he was tapped to audition as a possible movie critic replacement when Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert left Chicago PBS for Disney syndicatio