PBS NewsHour

External video
The Robert MacNeil Report; 19; New York City and C367 Bailout, segment starts at 2:45, November 13, 1975, NewsHour Productions and American Archive of Public Broadcasting[5]

In 1973, Robert MacNeil (a former NBC News correspondent and then-moderator of PBS' Washington Week in Review) and Jim Lehrer teamed up to cover the United States Senate's Watergate hearings for PBS. The two earned an Emmy Award for their unprecedented gavel-to-gavel coverage.[6]

This recognition led to the 1975 creation of The Robert MacNeil Report, a half-hour local news program for WNET, which debuted on October 20 of that year; each episode of the program covered a single issue currently in the news in depth. Less than ​1 ¹⁄₂ months later, on December 1, 1975, the program began to air on PBS stations nationwide. The program was renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report on September 6, 1976.[7] Most editions employed a two-anchor, two-city format, with MacNeil based in New York City and Lehrer based at WETA's studios in Arlington, Virginia. Charlayne Hunter-Gault joined the series in 1978 as correspondent, serving as substitute host for MacNeil and Lehrer whenever either of them had the night off. She became the series’ national correspondent in 1983. In September 1981, production of the program was taken over by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a partnership between MacNeil, Lehrer and the Gannett; the latter would sell its stake in the production company in 1986. Liberty Media bought a 67% controlling equity stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in 1994, but MacNeil and Lehrer retained editorial control.[8]

The final title sequence as The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, used from May 17, 2006, to December 4, 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";[9] it became known at that time as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The founding executive producer of the NewsHour was Lester Crystal.

Robert MacNeil retired from the program on October 20, 1995, leaving Jim Lehrer as the sole anchor (Charlayne Hunter-Gault would later leave in June 1997).[10] Accordingly, the program was renamed The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer three days later on October 23.[11] On January 16, 1996, The NewsHour announced the creation of its official website at PBS Online.[12] The NewsHour won a Peabody Award in 2003 for the feature report Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers.[13] On May 17, 1999, The NewsHour adopted a new graphics package, but refreshed the music from 1983. On October 4, 1999, Gwen Ifill joined The NewsHour team, as a new correspondent. She was a female anchor of a national nightly news program on broadcast television.[14] Effective January 17, 2000, The NewsHour added "America Online Keyword: PBS" at ending screen when AOL and PBS Enter Strategic Online, the On-Air Alliance for a 3-year agreement through effectively April 22, 2003.[15][16][17] For only the PBS website, the program took effect on April 23, 2003.[18] On March 3, 2003, the program added dates from the 1999 graphics in the beginning.[19] On November 17, 2003, The NewsHour added music in the beginning with dates.[20]

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 the show's theme music (originally composed by Bernard Hoffer).[21][22] On December 17, 2007,[23][24][25] 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 presented in a letterboxed format for viewers with standard-definition television sets watching either through cable or satellite television. The program also introduced a new set and upconverted its existing graphics package to HD.

Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff at the 2012 Republican National Convention

On May 11, 2009, PBS announced that the program would be revamped on December 7 of that year[26] under a revised title as the PBS NewsHour.[27] In addition to an increased integration between the NewsHour website and nightly broadcast, the updated production would return to a two-anchor format.[28] The overhaul was described by Jim Lehrer as the first phase in his gradual move toward retirement.

On September 27, 2010, PBS NewsHour was presented with the Chairman's Award at the 31st News & Documentary Emmy Awards, with Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, longtime executive producer Lester Crystal, and former executive producer Linda Winslow receiving the award on the show's behalf.[29]

Lehrer formally ended his tenure as a regular anchor of the program on June 6, 2011. He continued to occasionally anchor on Fridays afterward, when he usually led the political analysis segment with Mark Shields and David Brooks, until December 30, 2011.[30]

Judy Woodruff interviewing US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on September 18, 2013

On August 6, 2013, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff were named as co-anchors and co-managing editors of the NewsHour broadcast. The two shared anchor duties on the Monday through Thursday editions, with Woodruff solo anchoring on Fridays due to Ifill's duties as host of the political discussion program Washington Week (which was also produced Friday evenings).[31]

For much of its history, the PBS NewsHour aired only on Monday through Friday evenings; however on September 7, 2013, the program expanded to include weekend editions on Saturday and Sundays, with Hari Sreenivasan serving as anchor of those broadcasts. Although the weekend broadcasts are branded PBS NewsHour Weekend, those editions instead air for a half-hour; in addition, the Saturday and Sunday editions originate from the New York City studios of WNET, as opposed to the program's main production facilities at the Arlington, Virginia, studios of WETA-TV.[32][33] Plans for a weekend edition of PBS NewsHour had been considered as early as March 2013.[34]

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, Jim Lehrer and Robert 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."[35][36] The transfer was approved by the WETA board of trustees on June 17, 2014, and took effect on July 1. At that time, production of the program was taken over by NewsHour Productions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of WETA. 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 continues to be produced by WNET.[8]

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' longtime "Everyman" logo. The program also introduced a new graphics package by Troika Design Group and an original theme music composition by Edd Kalehoff, which incorporates a reorchestration of the nine-note "Question and Answer" musical signature that has been featured within the program's theme since its premiere in 1975 and a musical signature that had been featured on Nightly Business Report between 2002 and 2010.[37][38][39][40] PBS NewsHour Weekend retained its original graphics package that had been used since the launch of the Saturday and Sunday editions, as well as the theme music by David Cebert until August 29, 2015, when the program transitioned to the same theme music and a reworked version of the graphics package used for the weekday NewsHour broadcasts.

Gwen Ifill took brief breaks from her anchor duties on the PBS NewsHour 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 privately 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 turned into a tribute 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).[41][42][43][44][45] Although the program initially featured guest anchors on some editions between January and March 2017, Judy Woodruff effectively now serves as sole anchor of the PBS NewsHour.

In 2018, The Plastic Problem aired, which then went on to win a Peabody Award,[46] presented at the 2019 awards ceremony.

On October 14, 2019, the 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, Arizona. Anchored by Stephanie Sy, the bureau produces its own news summary with up-to-date information on events that develop following the conclusion of the original broadcast. A version of the program with this summary is shown to broadcast viewers in the Western United States and to online and East Coast viewers watching re-broadcasts.[47]

The PBS NewsHour is streamed live via USTREAM and YouTube every weeknight at 6 pm ET. The PBS NewsHour Weekend is also streamed on both platforms, every weekend live at 5 pm ET. Full episodes are available later, edited without sponsorship, on the PBS NewsHour YouTube channel. In addition, the NewsHour streamed the inauguration of Donald Trump via Twitter.

• Judy Woodruff – weekday anchor (Joined December 20, 1976 – June 24, 1993; joined CNN Group and returned to PBS on April 12, 2006)[57]
• Hari Sreenivasan – weekend anchor, substitute weekday anchor (Joined December 7, 2009; previewed on December 4, 2009 for changing the title)
• Jeffrey Brown – chief correspondent for arts, culture, and society, substitute weekday anchor (Joined December 23, 1998)
• John Yang – special correspondent, substitute weekday anchor (Joined March 1, 2016)
• Miles O'Brien – science & aviation correspondent, substitute anchor (Joined February 9, 2010)
• Lisa Desjardins – political correspondent (Joined October 29, 2014)
• William Brangham – regular interviewer and occasional substitute anchor for the weekday and weekend program (Joined August 10, 2012)
• Amna Nawaz – national correspondent and substitute anchor on Mondays-Thursdays only (Joined April 6, 2018)
• Nick Schifrin – foreign affairs and defense correspondent and substitute anchor (Joined February 10, 2016)
• Yamiche Alcindor – White House correspondent (Joined December 31, 2015)
• Paul Solman – business, economics and occasional art correspondent, creator of Making Sen$e (Joined September 1, 1978)
• Malcolm Brabant – special correspondent, especially reporting from Europe, based in Denmark (Joined June 15, 2015)
• Alison Stewart – substitute weekend anchor (Joined September 27, 2013)
• Soledad O'Brien – substitute weekend anchor (Joined October 11, 2015)
• Megan Thompson – substitute weekend anchor (Joined January 11, 2013)
• Mike Taibbi – special correspondent for the Weekend program (Joined April 11, 2015)
• P.J. Tobia – foreign affairs editor (Joined June 19, 2013)
• Fred De Sam Lazaro – correspondent for the Agents For Change series (Joined December 10, 1985)
• Stephanie Sy – correspondent and PBS NewsHour West anchor (Joined October 14, 2019)

• David Brooks (Fridays; Joined September 21, 2001)
• Jonathan Capehart (Fridays; Joined January 8, 2021)
• Tamara Keith (Mondays; Joined November 1, 2012)
• Susan Page (Joined July 16, 2018)
• Amy Walter (Mondays; Joined July 29, 2004)
• Stuart Rothenberg (Joined October 30, 1992)

• Robert MacNeil – weekday anchor (October 20, 1975 – October 20, 1995; retired)
• Kwame Holman – correspondent (1983 – 2014; retired)
• Charlayne Hunter-Gault – weekday anchor (July 18, 1977 – June 13, 1997; retired)
• Jim Lehrer – weekday anchor and executive editor (March 15, 1976 – June 6, 2011; retired except on Fridays until his last day December 30, 2011, and his last day as an executive editor on September 26, 2014; died on January 23, 2020)
• Margaret Warner – weekday anchor (June 24, 1993 – September 7, 2017; now a White House correspondent)
• Ray Suarez – weekday anchor (October 4, 1999 – October 25, 2013; moved to Al Jazeera America)[58]
• Gwen Ifill – Monday-Thursday anchor (formerly a Senior Correspondent) (October 4, 1999 – November 14, 2016; died from endometrial cancer)
• Terence Smith – weekday anchor (August 17, 1998 – November 23, 2005; retired)

• David Gergen (Fridays; March 30, 1981 – March 18, 1994)
• Paul Gigot (Fridays; March 25, 1994 – September 14, 2001)
• Mark Shields (Fridays; November 8, 1978 – December 18, 2020)

PBS NewsHour has received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children. Patrick Kevin Day of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff are making history on PBS."[60] David Leonard and Micah Schwalb of The Denver Post wrote, "One of the most trusted news programs on television."[61] Phil Owen of TheWrap wrote, "The least partisan analysis."[62] Tim Surette of TV Guide wrote, "The calm and credible information we need."[63]

In 2003, UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose and Missouri economist Jeff Milyo evaluated various media programs based on "think tank" citations to map liberal versus conservative media slants and published a study alleging liberal media bias in general. Based on their research, PBS NewsHour is the most centrist news program on television and the closest to a truly objective stance.[64][65] However, their methodology has been questioned.[66]

In October 2006 the media criticism group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) accused the PBS NewsHour of lacking balance, diversity, and viewpoints of the general public, and for presenting corporate viewpoints. FAIR found that the PBS NewsHour'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.[67] FAIR also protested in 1995 when Liberty Media purchased a majority of the program, citing Liberty's majority owner, John Malone, for his "Machiavellian business tactics" and right-wing sentiments.[68]

NewsHour executive producer Linda Winslow responded to many aspects:

FAIR seems to be accusing us of covering the people who make decisions that affect people's lives, many of whom work in government, the military, or corporate America. That's what we do: we're a news program, and that's who makes news... I take issue with the way the FAIR report characterizes each guest, which they have obviously done very subjectively. Witness the trashing of Mark Shields and Tom Oliphant (in the full report), who are not liberal enough for FAIR's taste. When you get down to arguing about degrees of left-and-rightness, I think you undermine your own argument.

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).[69]