PBS has announced that Lester “Les” Crystal — who most recently has been the President of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, which produces “PBS Newshour” — will retire in August. He will stick around with the company as a senior advisor through the rest of the year.
Crystal joined PBS in 1983 to head the transition from the “MacNeil/Lehrer Report” to the hour-long “MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour.” He had spent 20 years with NBC, where he was EP of “NBC Nightly News” and president of that network’s news division.
“I am fortunate to have been a part of television news during a period of many historic events as well as sweeping changes to the media industry,” Crystal said in a release. “I look forward to new projects and spending more time with my family.”