PBS

Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol, a harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, won the best documentary Oscar on Sunday night. Statuettes were awarded to Chernov, producer and editor Michelle Mizner and producer Raney Aronson-Rath. The Oscar — and nomination — was a first for both Chernov, an AP video journalist, and the 178-year-old news organization. This was the third nomination and first win for Frontline. Pictured: Raney Aronson-Rath (center), l-r: Vasilisa Stepanenko, Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Michelle Mizner and Derl McCrudden accept the award for best documentary feature film. (Chris Pizzello/AP)

With commercial networks largely bereft of fresh material beyond reality shows, sports and game shows, PBS has a fall schedule of new programming, including a heavy dose of nonfiction, led by Ken Burns’ look at The American Buffalo.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, has been named moderator of Washington Week on PBS. The Atlantic joins NewsHour and WETA Washington as an editorial partner on the program, which will be renamed Washington Week with The Atlantic.

PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, following Elon Musk’s decision to label the outlet “government-funded news.” PBS joins NPR, another major editorially independent outlet that receives some government funding, in halting its Twitter activity in light of the new label.

TV stations are still putting most of their dollars into on-prem hardware for master control functions, with their cloud investments aimed at OTT and disaster recovery. Pictured: Imagine recently partnered with Vizrt to integrate its cloud playout software with Vizrt’s live production tools.

Yamiche Alcindor, the veteran Washington correspondent who has moderated PBS’s Washington Week since the spring of 2021. is stepping down from the show, according to a memo sent to staffers Monday. Alcindor “has now decided to conclude her tenure with the program as she focuses full-time on her work at NBC and on her forthcoming book,” said Sharon Rockefeller, president and CEO of WETA Washington, the PBS station that produces the program, in a memo. No replacement for Alcindor has been named yet.

Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, addressed the new Congress Monday and its potential impact on funding for the organization and its member stations. “Our stations I think do an excellent job of making sure that legislators understand what the impact of that funding is for their stations,” Kerger told a ballroom of reporters Monday during PBS’s Television Critics Association press tour.

Beginning Jan. 2, the long-running PBS NewsHour will debut with new co-anchors and a new approach. “We don’t make change often here at PBS, so this is a big moment for us.”

The beloved talk-show host, now 86, spoke about a new PBS documentary that tells the story of the friendship that changed his life.

Allen Media Group’s free streaming service for local news and entertainment Local Now announced today a partnership to include live streaming of local PBS stations and that network’s Kids 24/7 channel. Local Now’s audience will have access to PBS’s award-winning content, from locally-produced shows to high-quality educational series to viewer favorites like PBS Newshour, Frontline and Antiques Roadshow.

Bruce Christensen, who led PBS from the mid-1980s to the early ’90s amid attacks on public TV for airing controversial documentaries, died Nov. 19 at his home in Orem, Utah. He was 79. PBS President Paula Kerger called Christensen “a giant of public television.”

PBS NewsHour made the official announcement on Wednesday that Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett would succeed Judy Woodruff as co-anchors of the newscast. Nawaz has been chief correspondent for NewsHour and Bennett as been chief Washington correspondent and PBS News Weekend anchor. They will start in their new roles on Jan. 2.

Noncommercial TV stations are telling the FCC that consolidation of MVPD headends is cutting off access to some of their audience and could threaten their carriage rights altogether. PBS and Americas Public Television Stations made that point in a filing with the commission in response to its proposed rulemaking on how to determine a TV station’s designated market area for must-carry purposes.

PBS has tapped a Big Tech exec to help steer content toward streaming and other new media platforms. Leili Boroumand, formerly senior business development executive with Amazon, will be the public broadcaster’s VP of business development. She is charged with expanding the noncom net’s digital footprint, as well as content from 24/7 channel PBS Kids, across multiple platforms.

Noncommercial TV station and network representatives said they are working hard to move to the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast transmission standard and its opportunities for enhanced emergency alerts, interactive educational programming and more, but that it is a challenging change and they can’t predict when a nationwide rollout will be accomplished.

Beyond his books, the handsome, white-haired McCullough may have had the most recognizable presence of any historian, his fatherly baritone known to fans of PBS’s The American Experience and Ken Burns’ epic Civil War documentary. Hamilton author Ron Chernow once called McCullough “both the name and the voice of American history.”

PBS on Wednesday revealed its programming plans for the coming year, including a second season of Native America and the premiere of the American Masters documentary about Anthony Fauci.

TVNewsCheck’s Michael Depp talks with Erika Dilday, executive producer of PBS’s POV documentary series as the show enters its 35^th season, looking at what makes potent documentaries work and how local TV stations can make successful forays into the space by drawing on their strong community ties. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

A onetime campaign manager, Shields became one of Washington’s most respected political commentators, both as a syndicated columnist and as a genial liberal counterpart to several conservative sparring partners on the PBS NewsHour. He was 85.

Public television built its reputation for news on the Watergate hearings. But on many PBS stations, the hearings are losing out to the likes of Daniel Tiger and Curious George, being consigned to second-class status, airing them only on secondary digital channels instead of their better-known and more widely accessible flagship channels.

PBS’s long-running nightly newscast PBS NewsHour has found its new White House correspondent. The program, produced by WETA, announced that Laura Barrón-López will cover the Biden administration for the program beginning June 13. She was previously a White House reporter for Politico and also worked for the Washington Examiner, The Hill and HuffPost.

The National Memorial Day Concert will return as a live presentation on May 29, with plans including a tribute to General Colin Powell and commemorations of Gold Star families and to those who lost their lives in the Vietnam War. The 90-minute broadcast once again will be hosted by Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise and will once again feature a lineup of musical performances along with tribute segments. It will air on PBS and stream on YouTube starting at 8 p.m. ET.

Judy Woodruff, the veteran news anchor who logged time at NBC News and CNN before taking up anchor duties at PBS’ venerable NewsHour, is expected to leave the desk in early 2023, according to two people familiar with the matter. She is expected to continue to lead the program through this year’s midterm elections. If plans follow through as anticipated, she will be succeeded by Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett, these people say — a major shift at a public-media institution that is a daily part of its viewers’ news routine.