PBS Names 2 Hosts for ‘NewsHour’

PBS on Wednesday named a pair of veteran Washington journalists as the new co-anchors of its flagship newscast, “NewsHour,” replacing Judy Woodruff after she retires at the end of this year.

Amna Nawaz, the chief correspondent of “NewsHour,” and Geoff Bennett, its chief Washington correspondent, are set to start as co-anchors on Jan. 2.

Ms. Woodruff, 75, is a legend of television journalism and among the industry’s pioneering female reporters. Her final broadcast of “NewsHour” as anchor will air on Dec. 30, after which she will remain at the network as a senior correspondent through the 2024 presidential election.

Ms. Woodruff started as a “NewsHour” co-anchor in 2013, alongside Gwen Ifill. Ms. Ifill died in late 2016; since then, Ms. Woodruff has served as the sole anchor and managing editor of the newscast. Her work at PBS dates to the 1980s, when she covered Washington for “NewsHour”; she became a senior correspondent at the program in 2007 after a long stint at CNN.

Ms. Nawaz, 43, has two decades of domestic and foreign reporting experience, including as a bureau chief for NBC News in Islamabad, Pakistan. She served as an anchor and correspondent at ABC News before joining “NewsHour” as a substitute anchor in 2018.

Mr. Bennett, 42, joined PBS this year from NBC News, where he covered the White House and served as a substitute anchor on MSNBC. He has covered three presidents and five presidential campaigns. His previous employers include ABC News and NPR.

PBS said that Ms. Nawaz and Mr. Bennett would also remain as contributors to NBC News and MSNBC.

The nightly newscast started in the 1970s as “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” hosted by Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil. The program is produced by WETA-TV, a PBS station in Washington, D.C.