Washington Week | |
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Also known as |
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Presented by |
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Narrated by | Paul Anthony |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 55 |
No. of episodes | over 2,000 |
Production | |
Production locations | WETA-TV Studios, Washington, D.C. |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production companies | WETA-TV (1967–2021) NewsHour Productions (2021–present) |
Original release | |
Network | NET (1967–1970) PBS (1970–present) |
Release | February 23, 1967 – present |
Washington Week with The Atlantic (originally Washington Week in Review from 1967 to 2001 and Washington Week from February 2001 to August 2023) is an American public affairs television program, which has aired on PBS and its predecessor, National Educational Television, since 1967. Unlike other panel discussion shows which encourage informal (sometimes vociferous) debates as a means of presentation, Washington Week consistently follows a path of civility and moderation. Its format is that of a roundtable featuring the show's moderator and two to four Washington-based journalists. The program is produced by WETA-TV in Washington, D.C.
Washington Week in Review was first broadcast on February 23, 1967, on National Educational Television and was picked up by PBS in 1970. Since its first episode in 1967, the program's announcer has been Paul Anthony. [2]
In 1999, Dalton Delan fired Ken Bode. [3] On October 1, 1999, Gwen Ifill became the host of the program until her death on November 14, 2016. A successor was not announced immediately. It was Ifill who shortened the name of the program when she took over, as a sign that "the show would spend more time looking forward." [4] On April 20, 2017, WETA announced that Robert Costa of The Washington Post would become the next moderator of Washington Week. [5]
On January 8, 2010, Washington Week began broadcasting in high definition, with broadcasts presented in letterboxed and pillarboxed 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. [6]
On July 13, 2018, the program underwent its first major change in presentation in years, adopting a new graphics package and a reorchestrated version of its theme music (with a new set, and music by Stephen Arnold). [7] [8] [9]
In January 2021, Costa left the program to devote his time to co-authoring an upcoming book with veteran journalist Bob Woodward; guest moderators were used in Costa's place. [10]
In May 2021, Yamiche Alcindor, at the time the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, became the ninth moderator of Washington Week. Alcindor had previously been a regular Washington Week panelist. [11] In December 2021, WETA subsidiary NewsHour Productions began producing Washington Week. [12] In February 2023, Alcindor announced that she would step down to focus full-time on her job at NBC and writing her memoirs, saying that her final date as moderator would be February 24. [13] After Alcindor's departure, various other journalists served as guest moderator until August 2023.
On August 2, 2023, it was announced that Jeffrey Goldberg, who has served as editor-in-chief of The Atlantic since 2016, had been named as the program’s tenth moderator, and that the politics and culture publication would also enter into an editorial partnership with the television program – which was retitled accordingly as Washington Week with The Atlantic – similar to the earlier collaboration with the National Journal. [14] [15] The first episode under the longer title, and with Goldberg as moderator, was broadcast on August 11, 2023. [16]
On June 21, 2024, Washington Week moved to a new studio, designed by Eric Siegel and George Allison. [17]
On February 17, 2006, Washington Week made an agreement with National Journal which ensured that at least one National Journal reporter would be on the show. [18] As of January 4, 2013, the agreement is no longer in effect.
Since moving to PBS, Washington Week has used a panel discussion format moderated by a host. Panelists come from various national media organizations.
Washington Week is on PBS's national primetime lineup. Because of the subscriber nature of PBS, local presentation of Washington Week is scheduled by individual stations, and air times vary by market. The most common airing pattern is the show leading off primetime on Friday evenings with weekend afternoon encores on most PBS member stations, and several airings per week on the affiliated network, World Channel.
Washington Week has received generally positive reviews from television critics. Barry Garron of Current wrote, "Favor[s] balance over frivolity." [22] Angelina Chapin of The Cut wrote, "[Alcindor's] job requires staying on top of a constantly evolving, 24/7 news cycle and then making those stories digestible for viewers." [23]
James Charles Lehrer 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 moderator during U.S. presidential election campaigns, moderating twelve presidential debates between 1988 and 2012. Lehrer authored numerous fiction and non-fiction books that drew upon his experience as a newsman, along with his interests in history and politics.
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.
Judy Carline Woodruff 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 2022. Woodruff has covered every presidential election and convention since 1976. She has interviewed several heads of state and moderated U.S. presidential debates.
Gwendolyn L. Ifill was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program with Washington Week in Review. She was the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of the PBS NewsHour, both of which air on PBS. Ifill was a political analyst and moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates. She authored the best-selling book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
WETA-TV is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA. The two outlets share studios in nearby Arlington, Virginia; WETA-TV's transmitter is located in the Tenleytown neighborhood in Northwest Washington.
Paul Welden Duke was an American newspaper, radio and television journalist, best known for his 20-year stint as moderator of Washington Week in Review on PBS.
Weekend editions of Today, an American morning news and talk program that airs daily on NBC, began with the launch of the Sunday edition of the program on September 20, 1987. After NBC expanded Today to seven days a week in the 1990s, the name Weekend Today was adapted primarily for promotional purposes.
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Mara Liasson is an American journalist and political pundit. She is the national political correspondent for NPR, and a contributor at Fox News Channel.
Jeffrey Brown is an American journalist, who is a senior correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. His reports focus on arts and literature, and he has interviewed numerous writers, poets, and musicians. Brown has worked most of his professional career at PBS and has written a poetry collection called The News.
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg is an American journalist and editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine. During his nine years at The Atlantic prior to becoming editor, Goldberg became known for his coverage of foreign affairs. Goldberg became moderator of the PBS program Washington Week in August 2023, while continuing as The Atlantic's editor.
BBC World News America is an American current affairs news program created by Garth Ancier and produced by BBC News, which premiered on October 1, 2007. Produced out of the BBC's Washington, D.C. bureau, Caitríona Perry and Sumi Somaskanda are the main presenters. Katty Kay – who originally appeared on the program through her role as a Washington-based correspondent for BBC News – served as the main presenter from 2011 to 2021, replacing original co-anchor Matt Frei.
Dalton Delan is an American writer, syndicated columnist, and television producer. He pens his syndicated column, the Unspin Room, for the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper The Berkshire Eagle. His work with PBS and Sundance have won him numerous awards for documentaries and primetime shows. A number of his projects include working alongside notable figures like actor Robert Redford, Ken Burns and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Delan oversaw the production of sixteen In Performance at the White House programs in collaboration with the Obama administration, as well as several under the Bush and Clinton administrations years prior. As executive producer, Delan brought music giants like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach, and Carole King to the White House. The final program under the Obama administration, The Smithsonian Salutes Ray Charles, is documented on YouTube as "WETA at the White House", features singers like Demi Lovato, Usher, and Anthony Hamilton.
Robert Costa is an American political reporter who is the chief election and campaign correspondent for CBS News. Prior to joining CBS in 2022, Costa was a longtime national political reporter for The Washington Post. Previously, he was a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC and the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS. He is the co-author with Bob Woodward of Peril, a # 1 New York Times bestseller on the final days of the first Trump presidency, including the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
Sherrilyn Ifill is an American lawyer and the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University. She is a law professor and former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She was the Legal Defense Fund's seventh president since Thurgood Marshall founded the organization in 1940. Ifill is a nationally recognized expert on voting rights and judicial selection. In 2021, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on its annual Time 100 list.
Yamiche Léone Alcindor is an American journalist who is a Washington correspondent for NBC News. In the past, she has worked as the host of Washington Week on PBS and as a reporter for PBS NewsHour, USA Today, and The New York Times. Alcindor writes mainly about politics and social issues.
Amna Nawaz is an American broadcast journalist and a co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour alongside Geoff Bennett. Before joining PBS in April 2018, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News and NBC News. She has received a number of awards, including an Emmy Award and a Society for Features Journalism award.
America's Great Divide: From Obama to Trump is a 2020 two-part television documentary film about the political divide between the United States Democratic and Republican Party in the early 21st century. Produced by the investigative journalism program Frontline on PBS, it charts how the two major political parties became increasingly adversarial to each other due to factors of race, media, and misinformation, from the 2008 presidential election to the presidency of Donald Trump. The film was directed by Michael Kirk and written by Kirk and Mike Wiser, and was first aired on PBS in two parts on January 13 and 14, 2020.
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