Knight Rider Heads Down a New Road

As first reported in The Hollywood Reporter, Knight Rider has hit a fork in the road and the path their taking is the one that leads back to where it all began.

“It’s a reboot,” “Knight” executive producer/showrunner Gary Scott Thompson said. “We’re moving away from the terrorist-of-the-week formula and closer to the original, making it a show about a man and his car going out and helping more regular people, everymen.”

With the change comes a couple of pink slips. Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Yancey Arias and Bruce Davison will all be leaving the series so the show can focus on the two leads.

Personally, I’m in line with all of this. I’ve never liked Poitier or her  character so I’m happy to see her go. Bruce Davison is always a nice supporting actor to have around but his role as KITT’s creator has already been downplayed so much he won’t really be missed. Yancey Arias was a nice presence as the FBI liaison, but with the show heading away from the terrorist threat, he too is expendable.

For the moment it looks like Billy (Paul Campbell) and Zoe (Smith Cho) will be sticking around, and they are my favorite twosome in the KITT cave, so that’s good news there.

As for the plot switch, yes, it’s about time. Not that the show was altogether believable in the first place, but these full scale attacks week after week were getting hard to take. I’d much rather see Michael on the search for answers to his own mysterious backstory while helping out the little guy as he did in the original incarnation of the series.

Look for the new-new Knight Rider in January.

Pictured: (l-r) Paul Campbell as Billy Morgan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier as Carrie Ruvai, Smith Cho as Zoe Chae, Justin Bruening as Mike Tracer, Deanna Russo as Sarah Graiman, Yancey Arias as Alex Torres, Bruce Davison as Charles Graiman — NBC Photo: Mitchell Haaseth