Bennett, Nawaz to replace Judy Woodruff on PBS ‘NewsHour’

In what’s being portrayed as a generational change, PBS said Wednesday that Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz will replace Washington veteran Judy Woodruff as anchors of the weeknight “NewsHour” at the beginning of 2023.

Woodruff, 75, is leaving the daily anchor job that she’s been doing since 2013 and embarking on a two-year reporting project on the nation’s divisions. Her last show as anchor will be Dec. 30.

Nawaz, 43, has been Woodruff ’s chief substitute since joining “NewsHour” in 2018. She’s won Peabody Awards for her reporting on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and global plastic pollution, and previously worked at ABC and NBC News.

The 42-year-old Bennett became anchor of the weekend “NewsHour” earlier this year after jumping from NBC. The Washington reporter covered the White House and Congress for NBC and, prior to that, NPR.

“You can’t understate the importance of this moment,” Nawaz said. “It is an enormous change for an incredible institution that doesn’t do this change often. On that level, I think both of us understand very deeply what we are taking on.”

More buttoned-down than commercial TV, “NewsHour” reports on stories of the day along with deeper, magazine-style pieces. It was spoofed on a recent “Saturday Night Live” segment as “we’re what your grandma’s talking about when she says, ‘I saw this on the news.’”

The show is broadening its audience beyond the estimated 2 million viewers who watch on television each evening by taking an active presence on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. “NewsHour” gets more than a million unique viewers each day on YouTube, according to Google Analytics and YouTube.

“There are few places these days that cover the fullness of American life, from hard news to feature stories, the way the ‘NewsHour’ does,” Bennett said.

PBS CEO Paula Kerger said the hirings also further the system’s effort to have the “NewsHour” broaden its focus beyond Washington news.

“One of the strengths of the public media system is we have these stations all across the country and we have been talking about ways to leverage that,” she said. There are 179 separate licenses for PBS outlets.