Geoff Bennett Gets Ready to Launch a Retooled ‘PBS News Weekend’
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAfter more than eight years, the weekday and weekend editions of PBS’ signature evening newscast are finally getting together.Washington’s WETA has long produced the venerable “PBS NewsHour,” the show once known as the “McNeil-Lehrer Report” and now anchored by Judy Woodruff, while New York’s WNET has since 2013 produced the Saturday and Sunday editions of the program.
Starting April 2, all seven days will be under the auspices of WETA, with Geoff Bennett, a former NBC News and MSNBC correspondent and anchor who was named the program’s chief Washington correspondent in November, taking the reins of a re-titled half-hour “PBS News Weekend.”“I think we are going to build on ‘NewsHour’s’ traditional mix of news and interviews and in-depth features,” says Bennett, in an interview.
At the same time, the weekend shows will leave room for figures from the worlds of culture and the arts. “Every week, we will bring on someone talking about a book they are writing or a show they are beginning.” Conversations with Sheryl Lee Ralph from ABC’s’ “Abbott Elementary” and singer Daryl Hall are in the works.
Arts coverage, however, is a byproduct of the process. WETA is also taking over the weekends as part of a bid to streamline resources and refocus “NewsHour,” which also serves as PBS’ primary hub of breaking news and special news production.
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