PBS NewsHour

''PBS News Hour'', previously stylized as ''PBS NewsHour'', is the news division of PBS and an American daily evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations since October 20, 1975. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events. Since January 2, 2023, the one-hour weekday editions have been anchored by Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett. The 30-minute weekend editions that premiered on September 7, 2013, branded as ''PBS News Weekend'', have been anchored by John Yang since December 31, 2022.

The broadcasts are produced by PBS member station WETA-TV in Washington, D.C., and originates from its studio facilities in Arlington County, Virginia. Since 2019, news updates inserted into the weekday broadcasts targeted for viewers in the Western United States, online, and late at night have been anchored by Stephanie Sy, originating from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Additional production facilities for the program are based in San Francisco and Denver. The program is a collaboration between WETA-TV and PBS member station WNET in New York City, along with KQED in San Francisco, KETC in St. Louis, and WTTW in Chicago.

The program debuted in 1975 as ''The Robert MacNeil Report'' before being renamed ''The MacNeil/Lehrer Report'' one year later. It was anchored by Robert MacNeil from WNET's studios and Jim Lehrer from WETA's studios. In 1983, the show was rebranded as ''The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour'', and then ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'' following MacNeil's departure in 1995. It was then renamed to its current ''PBS NewsHour'' title in 2009, two years before Lehrer left in 2011. Originally, the program only aired on weekdays before weekend editions began in 2013. Production of the weekend broadcasts were solely produced by WNET, before the New York City station transferred all of its ''PBS NewsHour'' involvement to WETA in April 2022.

History

Ownership

In September 1981, production of the program was taken over by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a partnership between Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, and Gannett; the latter sold its stake in the production company in 1986. John C. Malone's Liberty Media bought a 67% controlling equity stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in 1994, but MacNeil and Lehrer retained editorial control. In 2014, ''MacNeil/Lehrer Productions'', owned by MacNeil, Lehrer, and Liberty Media announced its donation, as ''NewsHour Productions LLC'', to WETA-TV as a nonprofit subsidiary.

''The Robert MacNeil Report'' and ''The MacNeil/Lehrer Report'' (1975–1983)

In 1973, Robert MacNeil (a former NBC News correspondent and then-moderator of PBS's '' Washington Week in Review'') and Jim Lehrer teamed up to cover the United States Senate's Watergate hearings for PBS. They earned an Emmy Award for their unprecedented gavel-to-gavel coverage.

This recognition led to the creation of ''The Robert MacNeil Report'', a half-hour local news program on WNET, which debuted on October 20, 1975; each episode of the program covered a single issue in depth. On December 1, 1975, the program began to air on PBS stations nationwide. It was renamed ''The MacNeil/Lehrer Report'' on September 6, 1976. Most editions employed a two-anchor, two-city format, with MacNeil based in New York City and Lehrer at WETA's studios in Arlington, Virginia. Charlayne Hunter-Gault joined the series as a correspondent in 1977, serving as a substitute host for MacNeil and Lehrer whenever either had the night off. She became the series' national correspondent in 1983.

''The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour'' and ''The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer'' (1983–2009)

Having decided to start competing with the nightly news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC instead of complementing them, the program expanded to one hour on September 5, 1983, incorporating other changes, such as the introduction of "documentary reportage from the field"; it became known at that time as ''The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour''. Lester Crystal was its founding executive producer. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions twice planned to launch late-night newscasts in 1995 and 1999; in both instances, the proposed expansions—which, respectively, were to have involved production and newsgathering partnerships with Wall Street Journal Television and ''The New York Times''—were canceled mid-development.

MacNeil retired from the program on October 20, 1995, leaving Lehrer as the sole anchor. Accordingly, the program was renamed ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'' on October 23. (Hunter-Gault left in June 1997.) On January 16, 1996, ''The NewsHour'' announced the creation of its official website at PBS Online. ''The NewsHour'' won a Peabody Award in 2003 for the feature report ''Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers''. On May 17, 1999, ''The NewsHour'' adopted a new graphics package with refreshed music from 1983, plus the new studio with a blue globe in the middle. On October 4, 1999, Gwen Ifill and Ray Suarez joined ''The NewsHour'' team as new correspondents. Ifill was a female anchor of a national nightly news program on broadcast television. Effective January 17, 2000, ''The NewsHour'' added "America Online Keyword: PBS" to its ending screen for a three-year agreement through April 22, 2003. For only the website, the program took effect on April 23, 2003. On March 3, 2003, the program added dates from the 1999 graphics in the beginning. On November 17, 2003, ''The NewsHour'' added music in the beginning with dates.

On May 17, 2006, the program underwent its first major change in presentation in years, adopting a new graphics package and a reorchestrated version of its theme music (originally composed by Bernard Hoffer). On December 17, 2007, the ''NewsHour'' became the second nightly broadcast network newscast to begin broadcasting in high definition (after ''NBC Nightly News'' on March 26, 2007), with broadcasts in a letterboxed format for viewers with standard-definition television sets watching via either cable or satellite television. The program also introduced a new set and converted its graphics package to HD.

''PBS NewsHour''

Departure of Jim Lehrer and switch to co-anchors (2009–2013)

On May 11, 2009, PBS announced that the program would be revamped on December 7 of that year under a revised title, the ''PBS NewsHour''. In addition to increased integration between the ''NewsHour'' website and nightly broadcast, the updated production returned to a two-anchor format. Lehrer described the overhaul as the first phase in his move toward retirement.

On September 27, 2010, ''PBS NewsHour'' was presented with the Chairman's Award at the 31st News & Documentary Emmy Awards, with MacNeil, Lehrer, Crystal, and former executive producer Linda Winslow receiving the award on the show's behalf.

Lehrer formally ended his tenure as a regular anchor of the program on June 6, 2011. He continued to occasionally anchor on Fridays, when he usually led the political analysis segment with syndicated columnist Mark Shields and ''The New York Times'' columnist David Brooks, until December 30, 2011. ''PBS NewsHour'' continues with various anchors until September 6, 2013.

Transfer of production, expansion to weekends and the west (2013–present)

On August 6, 2013, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff were named co-anchors and co-managing editors of the ''NewsHour''. They shared anchor duties on the Monday through Thursday editions, with Woodruff anchoring solo on Fridays due to Ifill's duties as host of the political discussion program '' Washington Week,'' which was also produced Friday evenings.

For much of its history, the ''PBS NewsHour'' aired only Monday through Friday, but in March 2013, plans to expand the program to include Saturday and Sunday editions were under development. On June 17, 2013, ''PBS NewsHour'' announced that the weekend editions of the program would premiere on September 7, 2013, with Hari Sreenivasan serving as anchor. Although they aired for a half-hour, the weekend broadcasts were branded with a modified program name, ''PBS NewsHour Weekend''. This program is based on the duration of WNET's involvement with the program. From the weekend broadcasts' debut until the March 27, 2022 edition, the Saturday and Sunday editions originated from the Tisch/WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, as opposed to the program's main production facilities at the Arlington, Virginia, studios of WETA-TV.

MacNeil/Lehrer Productions announced in a letter to the show's staffers on October 8, 2013, that it had offered to transfer ownership in the ''PBS NewsHour'' to WETA. In the letter, Lehrer and MacNeil cited their reduced involvement with the program's production since their departures from anchoring, as well as "the probability of increasing our fundraising abilities." WETA's board of trustees approved the transfer on June 17, 2014, and it took effect on July 1. At that time, NewsHour Productions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of WETA, took over production of the program. WETA also acquired MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' archives, documentaries, and projects, though not the company's name. ''PBS NewsHour Weekend'' was not affected by the ownership transfer and continued to be produced by WNET until 2022 when the program moved back to Washington.

On July 20, 2015, the ''PBS NewsHour'' introduced an overhauled visual appearance for its weekday broadcasts, debuting a new minimalist set designed by Eric Siegel and George Allison that heavily incorporates PBS's longtime "Everyman" logo. The program also introduced a new graphics package by Troika Design Group and original theme music by Edd Kalehoff, which incorporates a reorchestration of the nine-note "Question and Answer" musical signature that has been featured in the program's theme since its premiere in 1975 and a musical signature originally incorporated into the Kalehoff-composed theme for the '' Nightly Business Report'' used from 2002 to 2010. ''PBS NewsHour Weekend'' retained its original graphics package and the theme music by David Cebert and Bernard Hoffer until August 29, 2015, when it transitioned to the same theme music and a reworked version of the graphics package used for the weekday broadcasts.

Ifill took brief breaks from her ''NewsHour'' anchor duties in the late spring and in November 2016 (and was also absent from the program's presidential election coverage on November 8), as she had been undergoing treatment for advanced stage breast and endometrial cancer. After her death was announced on November 14, 2016, that evening's edition of the ''PBS NewsHour'' was dedicated to Ifill and her influence on journalism, featuring tributes from Woodruff, Sreenivasan, former colleagues and program contributors (news content was relegated to the standard news summary, which aired during the second half-hour). Although the program initially featured guest anchors on some editions between January and March 2017, Woodruff went on to become sole anchor.

In 2018, ''The Plastic Problem'' aired, which then went on to win a Peabody Award, presented at the 2019 awards ceremony.

On October 14, 2019, ''PBS NewsHour'' launched "''PBS NewsHour'' West", a Western United States bureau at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix. Anchored by Stephanie Sy, the bureau produces its own news summary with up-to-date information on events that develop after the original broadcast. A version of the program with this summary is shown to viewers in the Western United States and to online and East Coast viewers watching re-broadcasts.

On April 2, 2022, WETA assumed production responsibilities for the ''NewsHour''s Saturday and Sunday editions, which concurrently began originating from the studio at the station's Washington facility used for the weekday broadcasts. The broadcasts were retitled ''PBS News Weekend'', omitting ''"NewsHour''" in view of their shorter duration. NewsHour Productions transferred production of the weekend broadcasts from WNET in a move to streamline the program's production and news-gathering resources, allowing the weekday and weekend ''NewsHour'' broadcasts to have the same pool of correspondents and to share resources with ''Washington Week'' (which is also produced by WETA-TV). Coinciding with the move, the weekend editions began carrying feature segments covering culture and the arts. Sreenivasan (who remains a New York-based correspondent for the weekday broadcasts and serves as a contributor for the PBS late-night news program '' Amanpour & Company'') was replaced as weekend anchor by former NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Geoff Bennett. Then on December 8, 2022, ''PBS NewsHour'' announced that John Yang will become an anchor in the weekend editions on December 31, 2022 (New Year's Eve).

On May 13, 2022, Woodruff announced to ''NewsHour'' staffers that she would step down as anchor at the end of the year, though she intends to continue reporting longer pieces for the program while doing projects and specials for WETA through the 2024 United States presidential election at the earliest. Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett were named Woodruff's successors. Woodruff made her final broadcast as anchor on December 30, 2022. Nawaz and Bennett anchored their first broadcast as co-anchors on January 2, 2023.

On December 15, 2023, PBS premiered ''PBS News Weekly'', a digital-only half-hour weekly summary series of ''News Hour'' stories from the week, initially hosted by Nick Schifrin and broadcast on Fridays.

On June 10, 2024, ''PBS News Hour'' introduced a new logo and the new studio (still at WETA), now featuring the current PBS logo, and the logo and program's text and graphics rendered in the system's proprietary PBS Sans typeface family introduced in 2019. At the same time, the program's longstanding use of camel case in its name was discontinued, with "NewsHour" becoming two words by one space, "News Hour", in conjunction with the network's rebranding of the news operation as PBS News.

Production and ratings

The program is notable for being shown on public television. There are no interruptions for advertisements (though like most public television programs, there are "corporate image" advertisements at the beginning and end of each broadcast, as well as barker interruptions asking viewers to donate to their local PBS member station or member network during locally produced pledge drives, which are replaced by encore presentations of a selected story segment from the past year for stations that are not holding a drive during that time).

The program has a more deliberate pace than the news broadcasts of the commercial networks it competes against, allowing for deeper detail in its story packages and feature segments. At the start of the program, the lead story is covered in depth, followed by a news summary that lasts roughly between six and eight minutes, briefly explaining many of the top national and international news headlines; international stories often include excerpts of reports filed by ITN correspondents. This is usually followed by three or four longer news segments, typically running six to twelve minutes, which explore a few of the events mentioned in the headline segment in depth and include discussions with experts, newsmakers, and/or commentators. The program formerly included a reflective essay on a regular basis, but these have been curtailed in recent years; since Woodruff and Ifill became anchors, these essays have mainly aired as part of the end-of-show segment "Brief, but Spectacular".

On Fridays, the program features political analysis and discussion between two regular contributors, one from each of the Republican and Democratic parties, and one host from among the senior correspondents. Since January 2021, the usual participants have been ''Washington Post'' columnist Jonathan Capehart and ''The New York Times'' columnist David Brooks. Analysts who fill in when Capehart or Brooks are absent have included David Gergen, Thomas Oliphant, Rich Lowry, William Kristol, Ramesh Ponnuru, Ruth Marcus, Michael Gerson, David Corn and E. J. Dionne. On Mondays, a similar segment, "Politics Monday", features analysis and discussion of political issues with contributors Amy Walter