Update (1 p.m. ET, Friday, May 13)
According to a source, Woodruff told staff Friday afternoon that she will continue to anchor PBS NewsHour until the end of the year.
She added, “After that, as I’ve planned for a while, I’ll transition to reporting longer pieces, doing projects and specials for WETA—and maintaining a regular presence on the NewsHour, at least through the 2024 presidential election. Bottom line, I’m thrilled to be part of this vibrant, most extraordinary news organization and to help the NewsHour remain that way well into the future.”
The newscast will not make any additional details official as it pertains to its anchor desk until the fall.
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Some news at PBS NewsHour: Judy Woodruff is reportedly stepping down from PBS NewsHour after the 2022 midterms this fall.
Puck’s new Washington correspondent Tara Palmeri reported the news Friday morning.
Palmeri adds that PBS NewsHour weekend anchor Geoff Bennett and Woodruff’s primary substitute/the newscast’s chief correspondent Amna Nawaz will co-anchor the hour-long newscast upon Woodruff’s exit, and a new studio is being built for the duo
Woodruff is reportedly planning to stay at the network in a role that has yet to be determined—and is supported by PBS leadership, including chairwoman Sharon Rockefeller, chief executive Paula Kerger, among others.
A PBS NewsHour spokesperson did not immediately respond to our request for comment. However, a statement was previously provided to Puck, “We have a fantastic team at PBS NewsHour that continues to do outstanding work every day. We have a great deal of meaningful journalism planned for the future and that certainly includes Judy Woodruff, Amna Nawaz, Geoff Bennett and many others.”
Woodruff is a TV news legend. She and the late Gwen Ifill had been in their roles on the newscast since 2009 joining the late Jim Lehrer, who retired from NewsHour in 2011. Woodruff and Ifill became PBS NewsHour co-anchors officially in 2013 until Ifill’s passing in Nov. 2016. Woodruff went on to become the solo anchor and managing editor of the newscast in 2018, a role she currently holds. Prior to her time at PBS, Woodruff co-hosted CNN’s Inside Politics along with Bernard Shaw. She covered national politics and the White House for NBC News in the 1970s and 1980s, and her coverage of politics goes back to 1972 for the then-CBS affiliate WAGA in Atlanta.
Woodruff has won many of the top awards in journalism, including the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, the Walter Cronkite Award, the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism, the first-ever Peabody Award for Journalistic Integrity and the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.