''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.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, and originates from its studio facilities in
Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...
. Since 2019, news updates inserted into the weekday broadcasts targeted for viewers in the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau.
As American settlement i ...
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
. Additional production facilities for the program are based in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
and
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
. The program is a collaboration between WETA-TV and PBS member station
WNET
WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as Thirteen (stylized as THIRTEEN), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the Educ ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
WTTW
WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). ...
in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
.
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
James Charles Lehrer ( ; May 19, 1934 – January 23, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. He was the executive editor and a news anchor for the ''PBS News Hour'' on PBS and was known for his role as a debate ...
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
James Charles Lehrer ( ; May 19, 1934 – January 23, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. He was the executive editor and a news anchor for the ''PBS News Hour'' on PBS and was known for his role as a debate ...
, and
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...
; 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)
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
Jim Lehrer
James Charles Lehrer ( ; May 19, 1934 – January 23, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. He was the executive editor and a news anchor for the ''PBS News Hour'' on PBS and was known for his role as a debate ...
teamed up to cover the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
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
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''—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
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...
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
''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...
'' on March 26, 2007), with broadcasts in a letterboxed format for viewers with
standard-definition television
Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...
sets watching via either
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
or
satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...
. 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
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' 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)
Judy Woodruff
Judy Carline Woodruff (born November 20, 1946) is an American broadcast journalist who has worked in local, network, cable, and public television news since 1970. She was the anchor and managing editor of the ''PBS NewsHour'' through the end of 20 ...
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
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5  ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, 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
The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryology, embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is ...
and
endometrial cancer
Endometrial cancer is a cancer that arises from the endometrium (the epithelium, lining of the uterus or womb). It is the result of the abnormal growth of cells (biology), cells that can invade or spread to other parts of the body. The first s ...
. 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
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...
, 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
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
'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
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
and
MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
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
United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 2024. The Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's Ticket (election), ticket—Donald Trump, who was the 45th president of ...
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
A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...
family introduced in 2019. At the same time, the program's longstanding use of
camel case
The writing format camel case (sometimes stylized autological, autologically as camelCase or CamelCase, also known as camel caps or more formally as medial capitals) is the practice of writing phrases without spaces or punctuation and with cap ...
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
Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...
. 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 drive
A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term " pledge" originates from the promise that a contributor makes to send in funding at regular interva ...
s, 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
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...
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
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
Rich Lowry
Richard A. Lowry (; born August 22, 1968) is an American writer, and the former editor and now editor-in-chief of ''National Review'', an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative news and opinion magazine. Lowry became editor of ...
,
William Kristol
William Kristol (; born December 23, 1952) is an American neoconservative writer. A frequent commentator on several networks including CNN, he was the founder and editor-at-large of the political magazine '' The Weekly Standard''. Kristol is e ...
Michael Gerson
Michael John Gerson (May 15, 1964 – November 17, 2022) was an American journalist and speechwriter. He was a neoconservative op-ed columnist for ''The Washington Post'', a Policy Fellow with One Campaign, a visiting fellow with the Center fo ...
, David Corn and E. J. Dionne. On Mondays, a similar segment, "Politics Monday", features analysis and discussion of political issues with contributors
Amy Walter
Amy Elizabeth Walter (born October 19, 1969)"Profile: Amy Walter"
, national editor of ''
The Cook Political Report
Amy Elizabeth Walter (born October 19, 1969)"Profile: Amy Walter" Tamara Keith
Tamara Dawnell Keith (; born September 25, 1979) is an American journalist. She is the White House correspondent for NPR and co-hosts the ''NPR Politics Podcast'' with Scott Detrow''.'' She regularly appears on the ''PBS NewsHour'' weekly segmen ...
, Washington, D.C. correspondent for NPR.
The program's senior correspondents are Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown (Arts, Culture & Society). Essayists have included Anne Taylor Fleming, Richard Rodriguez, Clarence Page and Roger Rosenblatt. Correspondents have been Tom Bearden, Betty Ann Bowser, Susan Dentzer, Elizabeth Farnsworth, Kwame Holman, Spencer Michels, Fred de Sam Lazaro, the economics correspondent Paul Solman (''Making Sen$e''), Malcolm Brabant and others.
Lehrer and Ifill were frequent moderators of U.S. political debates. By November 2008, Lehrer had moderated more than ten debates between major U.S. presidential candidates. In 2008, Ifill moderated a debate between U.S. vice presidential candidates
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
and
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nomi ...
; in 2004, she moderated a debate between candidates
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
and
John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who represented North Carolina in the United States Senate from 1999 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the vice presidential nominee under ...
.
According to
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
at the program's
website
A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...
, 2.7 million people watch the program each night, and 8 million watch in the course of a week.
Honor Roll segment
On March 31, 2003, after the U.S.–led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the ''PBS News Hour'' began what it called its "Honor Roll", a short segment displaying in silence the picture, name, rank, and hometown of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. On January 4, 2006, military personnel killed in Afghanistan were added to the segment. ''PBS NewsHour'' aired the final honor roll segment on August 30, 2021, after the end of
War in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to:
*Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire
* Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...
.
Availability
The ''PBS News Hour'' is broadcast on more than 350 PBS member stations and member networks, making it available to 99% of the viewing public, and audio from the program is broadcast by some NPR radio stations. It is also rebroadcast twice daily in late night via American Public Television's
World
The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
service. Broadcasts of the ''PBS News Hour'' are also made available worldwide via
satellite
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
s operated by various agencies such as the
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...
.
A limited number of PBS member stations and regional member networks do not clear the ''PBS News Hour'' on their schedules due to existing carriage on a "primary" PBS member station, a pool mainly confined to "secondary" stations (most of which participate in the service's Program Differentiation Plan) that share certain
media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...
s with a "primary" member outlet. These include the
NJ PBS
NJ PBS (known as NJTV prior to 2021) is a public television network serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. The network is owned by the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority (NJPBA), an agency of the New Jersey state government which owns the ...
network in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
(as WNET, which co-manages NJ PBS and WLIW, carries the program in the New York City area, the latter airing the program live, while
WHYY-TV
WHYY-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Wilmington, Delaware, United States, serving as the primary PBS member station for the Philadelphia area. It is owned by WHYY, Inc., alongside NPR member WHYY-FM (90.9). WHYY-TV and WH ...
does so in the
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...
;
KCET
KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOC ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
( KOCE-TV in Huntington Beach, which shares ownership with KCET through parent Public Media Group of Southern California and is the primary PBS member in the region, serves as the program's carrier in the Los Angeles market); and
WYIN
WYIN (channel 56), branded on-air as Lakeshore PBS, is a secondary PBS member television station licensed to Gary, Indiana, United States, serving the Chicago area. It is owned by Northwest Indiana Public Broadcasting, Inc., as a sister station ...
in
Gary, Indiana
Gary ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 69,093 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it Indiana's List of municipalities in Indiana, eleventh-most populous city. The city has been historical ...
(
WTTW
WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). ...
, the primary PBS station for the Chicago DMA that includes WYIN's
Northwest Indiana
Northwest Indiana, nicknamed "The Region" after the Calumet Region, is an unofficial region of Northern Indiana, northern Indiana, United States that is located at the northwestern corner of the state. Though there is no official definition of th ...
service area, serves as the program's carrier in the Chicago market). In Boston,
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS List of PBS member stations, member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Affiliated stations and facilities
WGBH-TV is the Flagship (broadcasting), ...
airs the program live each weeknight (with a simulcast online), while its secondary station WGBX rebroadcasts the weekday editions later the same evening, and the weekend editions live; a similar case exists in New York City but in reverse, where WLIW airs the weekday and weekend editions of the ''PBS News Hour'' live while WNET airs them on a tape delay (delayed by one hour on weekday editions and by a half-hour on weekends). KQED in San Francisco airs the program each weeknight in simulcast with its radio sister at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m.
Eastern Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...
), in addition to airing the Western Edition on television at 6:00 p.m. PT. Unusually for many years, the secondary station of
Milwaukee PBS
Milwaukee PBS is the collective brand for two PBS member television stations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States: WMVS (channel 10) and WMVT (channel 36). Both stations are owned and operated by the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC).
...
, WMVT, carried the program as part of an early-evening news block with the '' Nightly Business Report'' (which was the lead-in to ''News Hour'' on many member stations until the series finale on December 27, 2019), and half-hour international newscasts from
Deutsche Welle
(; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...
and
BBC World News
BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...
, due to an expanded schedule of
PBS Kids
PBS Kids (stylized as PBS KIDS) is the branding used for nationally distributed children's programming carried by the U.S. public television network PBS. The brand encompasses a daytime block of children's programming carried daily by most PBS ...
and local-interest programming on WMVS; this has since been rectified with the launch of the all-hours PBS Kids subchannel network.
Archives of shows broadcast after February 7, 2000, are available in several
streaming media
Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...
formats (including full-motion video) at the program's website. The show is available to overseas military personnel on the American Forces Network. Audio from selected segments is also released in
podcast
A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
form, available through several feeds on the ''PBS News Hour''s subscriptions page with link to a FeedBurner website (for free mp3 download) and through podcast services such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...
, and among others.
Livestreaming
The ''PBS News Hour'' is streamed live on the program's
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channel at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time each weeknight, with the Western edition also streaming live at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. Pacific Time). ''PBS News Weekend'' is also streamed on the YouTube channel live Saturdays and Sundays at 5:00 p.m. ET. Full episodes are available later on the ''PBS News'' YouTube channel and on the program's dedicated page on PBS's website.
The ''News Hour'' was also livestreamed on
Ustream
IBM Watson Media (formerly Ustream and IBM Cloud Video) is an American virtual events platform company which is a division of IBM. Prior to the IBM acquisition, it had more than 180 employees across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Budapest office ...
until IBM Watson Media discontinued free livestreaming on the platform on September 17, 2018. The ''News Hour'' has also provided livestreaming of special events, most notably streaming the January 2017
inauguration of Donald Trump Inauguration of Donald Trump may refer to:
* First inauguration of Donald Trump
The United States presidential inauguration, inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States marked the commencement of Trump's first term ...
on the program's
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
account.
International broadcasts
* In Australia the program is seen Tuesdays through Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. AEST on SBS.
* In New Zealand the ''NewsHour'' is seen Tuesdays through Saturdays at 10 p.m. on Face TV (Auckland).
* In Japan the program is seen Tuesdays through Friday on NHK BS.
* Around the world for members of the
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...
.
''PBS News Hour'' editorial guidelines
On December 4, 2009, when introducing the new ''PBS NewsHour'' format, Lehrer read a list of guidelines for what he called "MacNeil/Lehrer journalism":
* "Do nothing I cannot defend."
* "Cover, write, and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me."
* "Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story."
* "Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am."
* "Assume the same about all people on whom I report."
* "Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise."
* "Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything."
* "Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions."
* "No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously."
* "And finally, I am not in the entertainment business."
On-air staff
Current
Anchors
* Amna Nawaz, co-anchor since January 2, 2023; joined April 6, 2018 as a chief correspondent
* Geoff Bennett, co-anchor since January 2, 2023; previously anchor of weekend broadcast beginning April 2, 2022; joined January 3, 2022 as chief Washington correspondent
* Stephanie Sy, anchor of ''PBS News Hour West''; contributing correspondent; and substitute weekend anchor; joined October 14, 2019
* John Yang, weekend anchor since December 31, 2022; joined March 1, 2016 as a national correspondent
Correspondents
* Laura Barrón-López – White House correspondent and substitute weekend anchor (joined on June 16, 2022)
* Malcolm Brabant – special correspondent, especially reporting from Europe, based in Denmark (joined June 15, 2015)
* William Brangham – correspondent/producer and occasional substitute anchor for the weekday and weekend program (joined August 10, 2012)
* Marcia Biggs - special correspondent, Middle East (joined December 8, 2014)
* Jeffrey Brown – chief correspondent for arts, culture, society, and substitute weekday anchor since December 23, 1998; joined as an off-camera journalist in 1988
* Tom Casciato - special correspondent (joined December 15, 2018)
* Fred de Sam Lazaro – correspondent and contributor to the ''Agents For Change'' series (joined January 10, 1985)
* Lisa Desjardins – political correspondent substitute weekend anchor (joined October 29, 2014)
* Michael Hill – substitute weekend anchor (joined in April 7, 2020)
* Miles O'Brien – science and aviation correspondent, substitute anchor (joined October 5, 2010)
* Ali Rogin - weekend correspondent (joined March 14, 2019)
* Nick Schifrin – foreign affairs and defense correspondent and substitute anchor (joined September 1, 2015)
* Paul Solman – business, economics and occasional art correspondent, creator of ''Making Sen$e'' (joined June 30, 1985)
* Hari Sreenivasan – special correspondent and former substitute anchor and weekend anchor (December 7, 2009 – March 27, 2022)
* Megan Thompson – substitute weekend anchor and special correspondent (joined June 2013)
*
Judy Woodruff
Judy Carline Woodruff (born November 20, 1946) is an American broadcast journalist who has worked in local, network, cable, and public television news since 1970. She was the anchor and managing editor of the ''PBS NewsHour'' through the end of 20 ...
– senior correspondent and former weekday anchor (joined September 5, 1983 – June 24, 1993; joined
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
Group and returned to PBS on April 12, 2006; stepped down as main anchor on December 30, 2022)
* Deema Zein – correspondent and digital anchor (joined April 9, 2018)
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' (Fridays; joined January 8, 2021)
*
Tamara Keith
Tamara Dawnell Keith (; born September 25, 1979) is an American journalist. She is the White House correspondent for NPR and co-hosts the ''NPR Politics Podcast'' with Scott Detrow''.'' She regularly appears on the ''PBS NewsHour'' weekly segmen ...
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' (substitute; joined June 6, 2012)
*
Stuart Rothenberg
Stuart Rothenberg (born 1948) is an American editor, publisher, and political analyst. He is best known for his biweekly political newsletter ''The Rothenberg Political Report'', now known as ''Inside Elections''. He was also a regular columni ...
of ''Inside Elections'' (substitute; joined October 30, 1992)
* Gary Abernathy of ''The Washington Post'' (substitute)
* Karen Tumulty of ''The Washington Post'' (substitute)
* Marcia Coyle (substitute)
Former
* Robert MacNeil – weekday anchor (October 20, 1975 – October 20, 1995; died on April 12, 2024)
*
Jim Lehrer
James Charles Lehrer ( ; May 19, 1934 – January 23, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. He was the executive editor and a news anchor for the ''PBS News Hour'' on PBS and was known for his role as a debate ...
– weekday anchor and executive editor (December 1, 1975 – June 6, 2011; retired except on Fridays until his last day on December 30, 2011; died on January 23, 2020)
* Charlayne Hunter-Gault – weekday anchor and correspondent (December 8, 1977 – June 13, 1997; retired)
* Kwame Holman – correspondent (1983 – 2014; retired)
* Roger Mudd – essayist and political correspondent (1987 – 1993; later became primary anchor for The History Channel; died on March 9, 2021)
*
Margaret Warner
Margaret Garrard Warner (born February 12, 1950) is a former senior correspondent for '' The PBS NewsHour''. Before joining the ''NewsHour'' in 1993, she was a reporter for ''The Wall Street Journal'', '' The San Diego Union-Tribune'', the '' Co ...
– weekday anchor and correspondent (June 24, 1993 – September 7, 2017; now at the Council of Foreign Relations)
* Gwen Ifill – Monday-Thursday anchor (also a Senior Correspondent) (October 4, 1999 – November 14, 2016; died from
endometrial cancer
Endometrial cancer is a cancer that arises from the endometrium (the epithelium, lining of the uterus or womb). It is the result of the abnormal growth of cells (biology), cells that can invade or spread to other parts of the body. The first s ...
)
* Ray Suarez – weekday anchor and correspondent (October 4, 1999 – October 25, 2013; moved to Al Jazeera America, and left ''NewsHour'' after the launch of 2013's ''NewsHour'' with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff)
* Terence Smith – weekday anchor and special correspondent (August 17, 1998 – November 23, 2005; retired)
* Yamiche Alcindor – White House correspondent (January 16, 2018 – January 7, 2022; moved to
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
)
* Mike Taibbi – special weekend correspondent and substitute weekend anchor (April 11, 2015 – June 29, 2020; retired)
* Daniel Bush – senior digital political reporter on air during election night coverage (November 2015 – June 2021; now a White House Correspondent at
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
)
* Alison Stewart – substitute weekend anchor (2012 – 2020; now at
WNYC
WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...
Public Radio)
Political analysts
* David Gergen (Fridays; March 30, 1981 – March 18, 1994)
*
Michael Gerson
Michael John Gerson (May 15, 1964 – November 17, 2022) was an American journalist and speechwriter. He was a neoconservative op-ed columnist for ''The Washington Post'', a Policy Fellow with One Campaign, a visiting fellow with the Center fo ...
of ''The Washington Post'' (substitute, died on November 17, 2022)
* Paul Gigot (Fridays; March 25, 1994 – September 14, 2001)
* Jeff Greenfield (Weekends; July 29, 2018 – January 30, 2022)
* Mark Shields as a syndicated columnist (Fridays; November 11, 1988 – December 18, 2020; died on June 18, 2022, from
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...
)
Criticism and reception
In 1992, radio broadcaster David Barsamian called the ''NewsHour'' "stenographers to power", accusing them and other
news media
The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public. These include News agency, news agencies, newspapers, news magazines, News broadcasting, news channels etc.
History
Some of the fir ...
of having a pro-establishment bias.
Critical response
''PBS News Hour'' has received generally positive reviews from television critics, children, and parents of young children. Patrick Kevin Day of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' wrote, "Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff are making history on PBS." David Leonard and Micah Schwalb of ''
The Denver Post
''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in the Denver metropolitan area. it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 mil ...
'' wrote, "One of the most trusted news programs on television." Phil Owen of ''
TheWrap
''TheWrap'' is an American online news organization that covers the business of entertainment and media. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman in 2009 and is based in Los Angeles. The site features original reporting, analysis, and editor ...
'' wrote, "The least partisan analysis." Tim Surette of ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
'' wrote, "The calm and credible information we need." Jennifer Gerson of ''The 19th'' wrote, "Nawaz is stepping into history."
In 2003,
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
political scientist Tim Groseclose and Missouri economist Jeff Milyo evaluated various media programs based on "
think tank
A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
" citations to map liberal versus conservative media slants and published a study alleging liberal media bias in general. Based on their research, ''PBS News Hour'' is the most centrist news program on television and the closest to a truly objective stance. However, their methodology has been questioned.
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is a progressive left-leaning media critique organization based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1986 by Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee. FAIR monitors American news media for bias, inaccur ...
(FAIR) accused the ''PBS News Hour'' of lacking balance, diversity, and viewpoints of the general public, and for presenting corporate viewpoints. FAIR found that the ''PBS News Hour''s guest list from October 2005 to March 2006 had Republicans outnumbering Democrats 2–1, and minorities accounting for 15 percent of U.S.-based sources. FAIR also protested in 1995 when Liberty Media purchased a majority of the program, citing Liberty's majority owner,
John Malone
John Carl Malone (born March 7, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman, landowner, and philanthropist. He was chief executive officer (CEO) of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), a cable and media giant, from 1973 to 1996. As of 2016, Malone i ...
, for his "Machiavellian business tactics" and right-wing sentiments.
''News Hour''
executive producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...
Linda Winslow responded to many aspects:
She also accused FAIR of counting sound bites as interviews, thereby skewing their numbers toward the political party holding a majority (at the time of FAIR's report, Republican Party).
Partnership with NPR
The ''PBS News Hour'' partnered with NPR for the broadcast of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions of 2016, in a strategy to prepare for the election between
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
and
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
.
See also
*
Institute for Nonprofit News
The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a non-profit consortium of nonprofit journalism organizations. The organization promotes nonprofit investigative and public service journalism. INN facilitates collaborations between member organizatio ...